For What It's Worth
by Scotland Evander
Summary: Clint Barton hated that stupid blue glowing cube. It made people as nutty as fruitcakes and now it was acting more insane than usual. Little did Clint know, the cube was only going to get more crazy and spit out three people, two of whom looked exactly alike apart from one was demented and the other not so much. *Part Two of Various States*
1. Come As You Are, Leave Different

**Disclaimer: I do now own any of the Marvel characters. ****_The Avengers_**** was written by Joss Whedon, movie transcript taken from the website Scribd. As always, if you know it, I do now own it. **

**"For What It's Worth" written by Steven Stills, "Hand Clean" written by Alanis Morissette, and **_"_**Star Trekkn'" written by John O'Connor, Grahame Lister, and Rory Kehoe.**

_A/N: This is part two of _Various States_. Part one, _Deep In The Heart_, is highly recommended as a read before starting this if you want Jess (OC) and Loki's story. _

* * *

**_Come as You Are, Leave Different_**

* * *

_Your number has been called / Fights and battles have begun / Revenge will surely come / Your hard times are ahead_

_-Muse, "Butterflies and Hurricanes" _

* * *

Clint Barton had seen many things in the past few days from his perch up in the rafters above the scientist's heads in the vacuum room. For the past six months or so, the blue cube they were all having kittens over had been sending out mixed signals. While they twittered over this, none of them were alarmed before today.

The blue cube confused them to no end— not that was anything new. The cube had been sending out befuddlement waves for the past six months.

Today, though, the scientists were alarmed due to the fact the cube seemed to be extra angry along with its usual massive confusion. Most worrying: Phil Coulson had no clue what was going on. This kind of frightened Clint, even if he'd never admit it to another living soul. Phil always knew what was going on. Or at least had an inkling what was happening.

Phil had no clue.

So, he had called Fury— who also had no idea what was going on.

This did not bode well.

For anyone.

"Talk to me, doctor," Nick Fury ordered as he waltzed into the vacuum chamber where the blue cube was acting as nutty as a fruitcake.

Doctor Erik Selvig poked his head out from behind some sort of machine, a concerned look on his face at the sight of Fury. Clint allowed his eyes to drift back to the Tesseract. It continued to glow and throw a tantrum worthy of a spoiled diva.

"Director."

Selvig was kind of weird. More so than the other guys who studied the cube. Selvig seemed to be extra interested in the cube.

Or something.

"Is there anything we know for certain?"

"Tesseract is misbehaving," Selvig said as if he was speaking of a badly behaved child.

Clint cast his eyes back to the doctor. Since the cube had begun to glow brighter than normal and "misbehave," Selvig had been even more weird. Six months ago the doc had really knocked it up a level when he started to call the cube "she." Then, this morning when the cube began to…channel the Mad Hatter on a bad day, Selvig really began to speak of it as if it was sentient.

He'd spent the morning talking to the cube as if it was a toddler having a tantrum.

Clint was going to advise they reassign Selvig. He'd headed around the bend big time.

"Is that supposed to be funny?" Fury inquired, a tone of annoyance in his voice.

"No. Not at all. She's…she is not only more active than usual, but she's misbehaving," Selvig said, glancing at the Tesseract. "Bad girl."

Clint glanced at Fury to find the man looking at Selvig as if he was worried for his sanity.

He should be. Clint was running out of words to describe Selvig's sanity level.

"Are you going to pull the plug?" Fury asked.

Selvig turned around and stared at Fury, giving him a look as if he thought Fury was a total idiot.

"She's an energy source," Selvig hollered. "If we turn off the power, she will turn it back on! She won't listen!"

Fury was scowling now. Well, Clint guessed he would be making a big frownie face. Fury had his back to him so Clint had to use his imagination. Selvig was looking a little gleeful, like his kid had figured out how to ride a two-wheeler that morning.

"If she reaches peak levels, I do not know what she might do. We've been getting strange readings from her for the past six months, but this time…"

Selvig waved his hands around his head and made an explosion noise, his eyes wide and a little too blue in the glow of the Tesseract.

"We've prepared for this, doctor."

"No. No, we have not," Selvig insisted, turning away from Fury and hurrying over to a computer. He pushed buttons. "Our calculations are far from complete. She's throwing off various interference radiation. It's nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation and another radiation I do not know. Alien. Must be alien."

"That can be harmful. Gamma and the alien radiation," Fury announced.

"Levels too low," Selvig said, flapping his hand.

Cling leaned forward a bit from his place high up above them, watching Fury turn around looking in the rafters.

"Where's Barton?"

"The hawk? Up in his nest as usual," Selvig said, glancing upwards. He waved his hand above his head, clearly having no idea where Clint had decided to perch for the day.

"Agent Barton, report," Fury's voice sounded louder and clearer in Clint's ear suddenly.

Sighing, Clint threw up his hook and rappelled down to the main floor, landing with a soft thump. Letting go of the handle, he headed over to where Fury and Selvig were standing. Fury nodded at Selvig, who was too busy being distracted by the cube to notice.

"I gave you this detail so you could keep an eye on him," Fury hissed, leaning down to talk in Clint's face.

"Well, I see better from a distance," Clint reminded his boss.

Fury pressed his lips together tightly, but said nothing in response to Clint's statement. He straightened to his full height, turning to look behind him a moment.

"Have you seen anything that might have set this thing off today?"

"No one's come or gone," Clint reported. "It's oven is clean. No contacts, no IMs. If there was any tampering, it wasn't at this end."

"This end?"

Clint rolled his eyes and sighed. "Yeah, it's a doorway, sir. Someone's been knocking for the past six months. That's what the unknown radiation is…well, likely is."

"Doctor, it's spiking again!" someone called.

Fury frowned in the direction of the doctor and his team of idiots. They all gathered around another computer and twittered.

"Something's happening here," Fury stated blandly.

"_What it is ain't exactly clear_," Barton sung quietly under his breath. "_There's a man with a gun over there, telln' me I got to beware…_"

Fury didn't notice.

"How do you know it's a doorway, Barton?" Fury asked, not bothering to look at Clint while he eyed the ever angry looking cube.

"I…I…I'm not sure," Clint admitted, fisting his hands at his side. "But…it seems like it is. It's just not a box filled with energy. It's…well, doors open from both sides. Things have to be able to come and go."

Clint had no idea where the idea had come from that the insane blue cube was actually like a door, but it had always been in his head since he had first seen the cube sixth months ago. And it made sense.

Suddenly, the whole building shook causing everyone to stumble. Thundering sound filled the room and many of the scientist crashed to the ground. Clint braced himself and remained on his feet. Light flared from the cube, alternating between white and blue. Many of the people in the room shielded away from the light, hiding behind their hands or arms. Clint watched as light explode from the opposite end of the room and connected with the lit up white and blue cube. The white and blue light on both ends of the room combined, tangling together and the cube began to boil and shake. It bubbled till a beam of light green light exploded outward and back towards the wall the other light was coming from. There was a loud bang and the sound of two bodies hitting the floor.

"Oof," came a muffled voice over the sound of the cube was making.

The cube did calmed down upon the appearance of the two bodies. White smoke floated upwards and settled in the ceiling, while the light from the opposite end faded.

Clint moved passed Fury and headed for the platform the two had landed as soldiers moved quickly to surround the pair. He noted that one was female. She was dressed in dark jeans, bright ass shoes and a dark jacket. The larger and longer body next to her was male and dressed in all black.

"What is going on?" Fury demanded.

"Tesseract is still misbehaving!" Selvig squealed gleefully.

"Hold your fire!" Clint shouted, as the cube shook and began to boil more. As he neared the platform, the female lifted her head and shook her dark hair out of her face. She looked around, her green eyes locking on the insane cube. She looked panicked and began to tug on the dark haired man next to her.

"We're here. And, uh, Lo…"

Clint neared the pair as the girl (she was younger than him, so she was a girl) turned and looked over her shoulder.

"What?" the male asked, his head still on the ground.

"I think…I think…we're not the only ones coming through."

"MOVE! MOVE!" Clint shouted at the pair.

The man's head snapped up. Clint noted he had matching green eyes to the girl.

Behind him, the cube exploded once more with a beam of light. The light that exploded out of the cube was different from the first light that exploded out of it. Sensing danger, Clint grabbed the girl under her arms and hauled her to her feet, while the other man stood up rather gracefully for someone who'd just face-planted on the ground at high speed. The girl couldn't to operate her limbs, so Clint pretty much hauled her off to safety while her limbs flayed around like a cartoon character.

"DOWN! DOWN!" Fury screamed, waving his hands around.

There was another bang, energy crackled and a huge force plowed through the room. Clint threw himself and the girl to the ground behind one of the computer terminals as something exploded. A huge gust of wind blew through the facility, knocking things over left and right. Glass shattered, metal crunched. If felt like the air was tearing things apart. The computer terminal Clint and the girl were behind blew over as if it weighted nothing. Without thinking, Clint shielded the girl with his body as she instinctively huddled into him.

As fast as everything started, silence fell.

Clint opened his eyes. The energy from the cube formed a blue misty cloud on the platform. The cloud was thick, obscuring whatever had come through. The cloud cleared away slowly as everyone slowly stood. As it cleared, it revealed a form couched on the platform that had not been there before. The only noise was heavy breathing coming from the man on the platform.

Clint let go of the girl, who turned to peer platform.

"Oh. My. God," the girl whispered. "That's…"

The guards were already back on their feet and approaching the form with caution. The kneeling figure slowly lifted his head up, smirking the most deranged smirk Clint had seen in a long while.

"No, no, no, no," the girl muttered.

Clint hauled her to her feet, putting her behind him. He glanced at the man who had arrived with her. They were both clearly dressed as, well, Earthlings while the newest edition was in something more alien. Or he got lost on his way to the Rein Fair.

"Who is he?" Clint asked as the dark haired man on the platform stood up.

Well, both raven haired men stood. They stood at the same time, moving in the exact same manner. Clint looked between them, realizing they looked alike. Aside from the one on the platform had longer hair, looked ill and held a strange looking scepter in his hands that glowed blue at one end.

"Loki," the girl whispered as Fury yelled, "Sir, please put down the spear!"

The Man in Black (well, he had a grey shirt on that glowed in the strange cube light, but everything else was black) began scanning the room. He appeared to be plotting an attack. Or an escape. The girl remained hiding behind Clint, fisting the back of his shirt.

As nonchalant as if he were simply out for a walk in the park, Spear Guy looked at the spear and grinned dangerously. Moving fast, the guy pointed the glowing end at Fury, the Man in Black, Selvig, and Clint.

Once more, Clint dove to the side, pushing the girl out of the way and landing on top of her.

"Oof," she grunted as blue light shot out of the spear exploding somewhere behind them. Clint looked behind him and saw the Man in Black had pushed Fury out of the way, while Selvig stared, a look of amazement on his face.

He hadn't been hit. A computer terminal hadn't been so lucky, but the damaged seemed to astound Selvig in his demented state.

"Stay down," Clint ordered the girl, shoving her behind some fallen debris as the Man in Black suddenly (and mysteriously) vanished.

All hell broke loose. Machine guns began firing at Spear Guy, only the bullets bounced right off. Spear Guy thought this was hilarious. The man leered before leaping up and attacking the guards. Clint moved to help when in a blink of an eye the guards were all on the ground. Just lying there and appearing to be unharmed. The man on the platform appeared mildly confused. He stared at the scepter in his hands and the knife in his other hand. He looked behind him to where he'd started and to the spot where he had landed a few feet from one of the downed guards.

"Curious," Spear Guy said. He turned his attention to the ceiling, then scanned the room again with his eerily looking blue eyes. He took a few more steps towards the middle of the room and shouted, "Show yourself! I know you are here! WHO ARE YOU?"

"I'm no where. And no one to you."

"You stole my voice," Spear Guy shouted.

"I did not."

Clint was pretty sure the invisible voice had, as the voices were almost identical. There was a tone, some sort of emotion missing from the invisible voice that Spear Guy had.

"SHOW YOURSELF!" Spear Guy shouted, a blast of energy exploding from his scepter.

Clint fell to his knees in order to not be hit as the blast searched around for its target. It bounced around the room like a pinball.

"SQUIRREL!" the girl suddenly screamed, scrambling out from where Clint had pushed her. Clint wheeled around as he saw a flash of bright orange vanished behind another computer terminal.

"NOT THE TIME!" bellowed the voice from the ceiling.

The girl jumped to her feet, popping up on the other side of Clint. She was closer to Spear Guy.

A little too close.

Spear Guy stepped back onto the platform and zeroed in on the girl, waved his spear like a wizard might wave a wand. Clint tackled the girl to the ground once more. Something exploded over their heads. He felt burning hot something hit his back and bit his lip.

"What is wrong with you?" he hissed into her ear.

"I'm trying to save your mind!" she returned.

Clint rolled off the girl and turned around still in his crouch. He didn't get far before he realized Spear Guy was standing right in front him. He took in the guy's boots and slowly reached for his gun. The man roughly hauled Clint to his feet before he had a change to even get his hand on the gun.

"You have heart," Spear Guy stated flatly.

He seriously looked like he needed a round meal and a nap.

"Oh, no you don't," the girl said, scrambling to her feet.

She threw herself at the guy, somehow knocking him over. Clint blinked several times as the Spear Guy and Orange Shoe Girl struggled on the ground. Clint quickly pulled his gun out and aimed.

"Move!" Clint ordered, pointing his gun. He couldn't get a clear shot.

"JESSICA!"

Spear Guy got the upper hand in their struggle and hauled the girl to her feet as he stood.

"GET FURY," the girl shouted, struggling to get out of Spear Guy's hold. He had her in an iron grip by her upper arm and judging by her expression it hurt.

"Let her go," Clint evenly said.

Spear Guy responded by holding Orange Shoe Girl out in front of him at arm's length— right in Clint's way.

"You have fire," Spear Guy stated. "I think I want that."

He pressed the tip of his spear to her chest, right over her heart. The girl sucked in a lot of air and he let go of her. The girl took a step backwards, not stumbling. Spear Guy must have found something strange in her expression (or he knew she lacked the grace not to stumble), as he cocked his head to the side and muttered, "Interesting."

Turning, Spear Guy focused on Clint. The girl stepped aside and Spear Guy moved quickly. He grabbed Clint's hand with the gun, pushing it to the side with lighting speed. Before Clint could react, Spear Guy pointed the spear at Clint's heart and suddenly, Clint couldn't remember why he wanted shoot Loki of Asgard. Why would he ever wish to harm Loki of Asgard?

Loki was his boss. They were a pair, a group, a set. Clint looked up at Loki and waited for orders.

Loki had shown him the way, enlightened him to the right path. He was the commander, the boss, the one who knew what to do. Loki was right, everyone else was pretty much wrong.

"Hmmmm," Loki said, looking down at the specter. "It seems to work."

* * *

_Oh some evil sprit this way comes / They told me how to fear it / Now they're placing it on their tongues_

_-Local Natives, "Wide Eyes" _

* * *

Loki Laufey-Odinson (he was Laufey's by birth and Odin's by choice, so he was going to use both names and in Jess's words 'own it') took one look at what was going on around him, with Clint Barton rushing towards them, Nick Fury yelling in the background, the scientist all a flutter and knew something was wrong.

Very wrong.

Clint hauled Jess away and Loki jumped up to follow, stumbling almost straight into Nick Fury, who looked a combination of worried, furious and anxious.

"What did you do!" the dark man shouted at Loki as light exploded from the Tesseract and a portal opened behind Loki's back.

Loki whirled around and saw stars and the black of space before a huge gust of wind hit him square in the face, knocking him right into the Fury. The two men crashed to the ground as the wind and all other noise died out. Loki scrambled off of Fury and hurried to see who had come through.

The entire scene was a little too familiar for Loki's liking.

The smoke cleared and Loki was faced with a figure he knew, a figure he had thought would never exist.

But, he did exist.

He was right in front of Loki, looking as if he'd stepped right out of the movie Loki thought would never be.

Slowly, the figure stood up and Loki's eyes fell on the specter with it's glowing blue stone.

It was like a bad dream.

This could not be happening.

Fury appeared next to Loki, clamping down hard on his upper arm to prevent him from moving.

Loki had no interest in moving.

"Sir, put down the spear!" Fury shouted, using his free hand to motion to the other Loki he meant no harm, while at the same time indicating to the other guards to move in. "We mean you no harm!"

The Other Lo—no, Reindeer Games. That was what Jess always used when she spoke of Movie Loki, the Loki before his eyes now.

Reindeer Games cocked his head to the side as the SHEILD guards moved in closer. Loki knew that look. Even if he hadn't seen the movie, he'd know what was going to happen.

Loki did not understand. There should not be two of him, there was no way they both belonged in this reality. And this was his world, his reality, his universe. Loki could feel life, feel the tree, feel other beings and the magic in the ground linking everything together.

He belonged here.

There should not be two of him.

This scene should not be playing out.

But, Reindeer Games belonged here as much as Loki did.

That much Loki could sense. Reindeer Games belonged as much as Jess did. As much as any of them did.

It made no sense.

As Reindeer Games raised the specter to shoot Fury, Loki pushed Fury out of the way. They both tumbled to the ground. Loki used his natural grace and skill born out of training with Thor to flip himself over Fury's prone body. He landed in a crouch and looked for Jess.

Clint had tackled Jess to the ground. Loki turned his attention to Fury.

"Get the Tesseract out of here. He's after it," Loki hissed before he teleported.

Before Reindeer Games could harm the other humans and kill them as he had in _The Avengers_, Loki used illusions to distract RG (Reindeer Games was a mouthful) and a spell to knock the other SHEILD agents out. He knew RG would notice, but he wasn't worried about retaliation. While Loki was drained from using his magic to get him and Jess to this reality, he was in better shape (mentally and physically) than RG.

RG's magic was corrupt from the spear and whatever had been done to him by who ever had gotten to him after his fall. Loki felt it the moment the man had used the spear the first time.

RG was also in tough shape physically. Loki could almost feel the ache of the others bones within his own bones, the weariness that he carried in his heart— along with the all consuming rage, anger, arrogance, and hate.

Besides having non-corrupt magic and being in better shape physically, Loki also had the added benefit of knowing exactly what RG was going to do— and not just because he'd seen the show before. Loki knew RG, knew how he'd react to all the new instances and surprises.

Loki teleported himself up into the rafters where Clint Barton had hidden himself before the Lokis and Jess had invaded. Loki could see the whole room before him. RG stood off to the side the platform, looking between the specter and his knife in utter bemusement.

"Curious," RG muttered, lifting his head. Loki saw the dark circles and tired blueish eyes as the man gazed around the room, trying to search him out.

RG looked horrible. More so than he had in the movie— then again, the movie was a movie. Tom Hiddleston had not actually gone through whatever RG had been put through before arriving. Reality was harsher than Hollywood.

"Show yourself! I know you are here!" RG shouted at the ceiling, snarling a little.

Throwing his voice, Loki said, "I'm no where. And I am no one to you."

"You stole my voice!" RG bellowed, anger flaring up in his blue tinted eyes.

"I did not," Loki replied, tossing his voice around the room again.

"SHOW YOURSELF!"

Energy blasted out of the spear. Loki teleported around the room, leaving illusions of himself everywhere. The energy refused to halt.

"SQUIRREL!"

Loki felt his blood freeze. "NOT THE TIME!"

Before leaving, Jess and Loki had decided they needed a code word. Actually, Jess decided they needed a code word.

"In case you want me to duck," Jess had said. "But don't want to let others onto the plan. I mean, you usually know what I want, so I'll shout…squirrel! It's random."

What her shouting the word boiled down to: she was going to do something stupid.

Loki ceased teleporting suddenly as he noticed Jess had moved away from Barton. Loki almost got hit with the blue energy, as he realized what she was going to do.

She was going to attempt to prevent RG from brainwashing Clint Barton and the others. RG, upon spotting her, waved the specter and the blue energy exploded next to Loki's head. Loki threw himself to the side, teleporting back to the main floor. As he reappeared, blue sparks were falling on everyone and the smell of burnt cloth, skin and plastic filled his nose. RG moved silently over to where Clint and Jess were on the ground. Clint moved slowly off Jess and turned while still crouching till RG hauled Clint to his feet by his wrist.

"You have heart," Other Loki flatly stated.

"Oh, no you don't!"

Jess threw herself at RG. Because RG was so weak, she was able to tackle him to the ground.

"JESSICA!" Loki shouted, moving forward to drag her away from the Deranged Reindeer.

He did not get very far, as Fury grabbed his arm and glared at him through one eye.

"GET FURY!"

"What is she talking about? Who are you people?" Fury hissed at the same time.

"I'm Loki Laufey-Odinson," Loki stated flatly. "She is Jessica Witton. The other man is Loki of Asgard. You need to get the Tesseract as I instructed and get out."

"Interesting," Loki heard the RG whisper.

Fury stared at Loki with his one good eye, frowning. Fury was furious, but he made a choice. He hauled Loki with him as he went for the Tesseract. Letting go of Loki's arm, he began to gather the Tesseract as RG went around gathering mind slaves. When Loki thought Fury was taking too long, Loki helped get the cube disconnected from it's holder. The pair put it in the case and Fury locked it.

"We're leaving," Fury hissed. Loki glanced over his shoulder, noting Jess and Barton were both mind slaves. He dug his nails into his palms. Fury grabbed him by his jacket collar and turned him to face him again. "You stay with me. I've got questions."

"Please don't. I still need that," RG suddenly said. He almost sounded bored.

Fury froze for a moment, thrusting Loki behind him so RG wouldn't notice the fact Loki had the same face. Fury was a larger man than Loki, so he was shield him from view.

"This doesn't have to get any messier," Fury said, still backing up and pushing Loki while keeping a tight grip on his open jacket.

The Deranged Reindeer snorted. He turned to face Fury fully and Fury stopped moving backwards.

"_Oooh, this could be messy, but you don't seem to mind_," Jess said in a sing song voice.

RG smirked in a demented manner and studied the spear tip, seemingly not hearing Jess at all.

"Of course this will be messy. I've come too far for anything else," Loki softly said. He looked up slowly, an unsettling gleam in his eyes and a smirk on his thin lips. "I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

Jess snorted. RG sharply looked at her.

"Sorry, boss. They fail to realize how loaded that statement is," she cheerfully said, smiling.

RG stared at her, cocking his head to the side. He walked a few paces to stand in front of Jess and stared down at her.

"Loki? Brother of Thor?"

Selvig slowly approached RG, who glanced up, and barred his teeth at the doctor.

Loki hissed behind Fury, having forgotten the scientist. If RG didn't have Selvig, he'd be unable to open the portal in a timely manner.

"We have no quarrel with your people," Fury pointed out, his eyes still on RG. "We're…friendly with Asgard."

RG made a noise of derision, turning and cocking his head to the side.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."

He studied his specter for a moment. Jess snorted again.

"You planning to step on us?" Fury asked, backing into Loki. He moved the case and handed it to Loki. Loki took it, surprised to be given such an item. Fury had also let up his death grip on Loki's coat sleeve.

"I come with glad tidings, of a world made free," RG offered, still looking at his specter.

"Free from what?" Fury inquired.

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie," RG replied. A smile Loki did not like appeared on the other's face. "Once you accept that, in your heart…"

Like a some sort of graceful dancer, RG pivoted and placed the specter over Selvig's heart. The man's eyes went black and then faded to the misty, glowing blue of all the other minions.

"You will know peace," RG finished, with a small smile on his face as he looked at Selvig.

"Or at least you'll know the will of Locutus. You will be assimilated," Jess announced, grinning wildly suddenly. "We come in peace, shoot to kill, shoot to kill."

She shot off finger pistols, aiming at Fury, then RG and finally Selvig.

"What is wrong with you?" RG curiously asked Jess, who was still standing next to Barton.

"I dunno. I like you," Jess announced happily. She wore a huge smile on her face that reminded Loki of the one that came out when she was on cold medicine. "But you look horrible. You need to eat something, Locutus. Or, I could do your makeup. I'm a makeup expert. And I brought some!"

The ground shifted below their feet suddenly. Loki stumbled sideways. Barton reached out to steady RG (who for some bizarre reason Jess was calling Locutus), who had also stumbled.

"Oh, bugger," Loki muttered. "We need to leave. Take my hand."

Fury didn't move.

"Fury!" Loki hissed urgently.

"Sir, Director Fury is hiding the Man in Black and is stalling," Barton suddenly said, stepping forward.

"Loki. His name is Loki," Jess offered. "Well, Other Loki. There's two of you! OH! We could call you Lore and him Data— because he's not evil. I like Lore. I like you. You're pretty."

There was something seriously wrong with Jess, as she ought not to be so cheery under the mind control. Her eyes were also not glowing blue, but looked…well, like RG's eyes. Just blue instead of green.

"This place is going to blow up," Barton went on as if Jess had said nothing. "Drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."

"Like the Pharaohs of Odin," Fury joked.

"He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself. You got maybe two minutes before this goes critical," Selvig offered.

"Well, then…"

Jess suddenly grabbed the gun in Barton's hand and shot at Fury, who jerked backwards into Loki so fast he dropped the suitcase in order to catch the other man. The metal case hit the floor and slid away from Loki as the building jerked back and forth, making Loki stumbled sideways and backwards with the added weight of Fury. Jess continued to shoot at them, a look of concentration on her face. With one last look at Jess, Loki quickly teleported into the field he remembered the helicopter crashing into from the movie.

* * *

_He introduced us to his demons / We started moving in reverse / Just when things can get no worse / That's when they do, baby_

_-Walking Papers, "The Butcher"_


	2. Battle Born

**Disclaimer: I do now own any of the Marvel characters. The Avengers was written by Joss Whedon, movie transcript taken from the website Scribd. If you know it, I do now own it. **_"_**Star Trekkn'" written by John O'Connor, Grahame Lister, and Rory Kehoe**

* * *

**_Battle Born_**

* * *

_The lunatic is in my head / You raise the blade / You make the change / You rearrange me_

_-Pink Floyd, "Brain Damage"_

* * *

"Where did they go?" the boss asked curiously, turning to look at Clint as he rushed forward to grab the metal case with the Tesseract that had slid away from the Fury and the other guy.

"I dunno. Data doesn't know much about this place, other than what he saw in the movie," the girl explained, lowering the gun. She grinned. "Lo is really like Data— curious and harmless. You're really like Lore— insane."

"What _is_ wrong with you?" Loki inquired again, stepping closer to the girl. "Your eyes are blue, but not the same as the others."

"We need to move," Barton announced, returning to Loki.

"Yes, yes," Loki said, sounding disinterested.

Loki's knees suddenly buckled. Clint lurched forward and caught his boss with his free arm. The girl moved to the other side and helped.

"You need to eat," she chided Loki. "Let's blow this joint."

"Were you this annoying always?" Loki ground out, struggling to stand on his own.

"Move out!" Clint shouted.

The various scientists and guards Loki had shown the way to followed.

"I don't think I'm annoying. I'm not sure though," she admitted. She gave a wide smile to Loki and said, "It's life, Jim. But not as we know it."

"You are odd," Loki stated, grabbing Clint's arm in a death grip. For a frail looking man, he was sure strong. Must be the god aspect.

Wait, where had that idea come from? Had Loki told them he was a god?

"And there's Klingons on the starboard bow. Scrape 'em off."

And she shot a few more rounds at some random agents with the gun in her right hand.

"Gather weapons as we go," Loki ordered the personnel behind as the girl and Clint attempted to frog march Loki down the corridor. "You, we need vehicles."

"I know. On our way, boss," Clint said, all but dragging the man down the hallway.

"We come in peace!" Jess shouted, shooting more SHEILD personnel. "Shoot to kill, shoot to kill."

Clint noticed she wasn't shooting to kill, just injure.

"I will kill you if you continue to annoy me," Loki hissed through clenched teeth.

"Of course you will," the girl agreed, but did not seem very bothered. She continued to move people out of their way with the gun till she ran out of bullets shortly before they reached the exit tunnel. She tossed the gun over her shoulder, managing to hit a SHEILD agent on the head, knocking him out.

The group arrived in the exit tunnel to find a few trucks were available to take. The only SHEILD agent present was Maria Hill. The girl let go of Loki as they neared the trucks and slipped off. Since Loki wasn't bothered, neither was Clint. He kept an eye on Hill, who was eyeing Clint and his boss. She looked mildly confused as Clint loaded Loki into the back of the truck.

Granted, she was against everything Clint believed in now, so it made sense she wouldn't simply glance and let him go on his merry way.

"Who's that?" she demanded, pointing at Loki with her walkie-talkie. "What are you doing? Who is she?"

"You don't need to know," the girl said, randomly popping up like a prairie dog next to Hill.

"She didn't tell me," Clint said, eyeing the girl and closing the back of the truck once he was sure Loki was comfortable. He turned to the girl, who was eyeing the truck. She pulled out a gun from somewhere and flicked the safety off. "What are you…"

"Boldly going forward," was all the girl said, suddenly grinning in a sinister manner.

Hill opened her mouth, but slammed it shut when Fury's voice issued out of her walkie. Clint sent the girl a look and she grinned larger. She honestly looked deranged.

"Hill, do you copy!" Fury shouted.

"I think I do like you," Loki said quietly from over Clint's shoulder. Clint glanced behind him to find Loki leaning froward, hands resting on his spear and watching the girl with what appeared to be fondness. "Continue. You. Let's go."

"Copy," Clint turned around and headed for the driver's side door as he heard gunfire and tires deflating.

"Barton is…" comes out a crackling voice.

"Allons-y!" the girl shouted loudly and Clint heard her jump into the back of the truck as he swung the door open.

Hill whirled around but failed to draw her side arm.

It was missing.

Clint finished getting into the truck while Hill scrambled to try to stop him and the others from leaving.

She failed of course.

Clint started the truck up, noting Selvig was communing with the Tesseract and both Loki and the girl were in defensive positions in the back. As he drove off, the girl shot out a few more tires— thus preventing anyone from getting out the way they were exiting.

* * *

_You keep your wishes / I'll keep my feelings / There goes another one that kept me breathing_

_-Limp Bizkit, "Hold On" _

* * *

"He's got the Tesseract! Track it down!" Fury shouted, getting to his feet. He was speaking into something that was not a cell phone, but a bit more primitive.

"I can't! They shot the ties out on the trucks!" crackled a female voice out of the tiny speaker.

"Is everyone out?" Fury demanded.

"Pretty much."

"Get out! Get out of there, now! Helicopter on the roof, Hill!"

"Copy that."

Fury paced back and forth, letting out a noise of frustration. He tighten his grip on the black two-way radio in his hand. Loki, meanwhile, slowly got to his feet and wondered what his next move ought to be. He brushed the dirt and dust off his dark jeans.

Reindeer Games— the insane version of himself— had Jess. It was likely Jess who'd shot the tires out, knowing full well Hill got into a truck and followed.

"Okay, you," Fury said, shoving a gun in Loki's face. Loki steeled himself and managed not to flinch or stumble backwards. "You're gonna tell me what the fuck is going on."

Loki held up his hands. He stared down the barrel.

"I am Loki Laufey-Odinson. About eight months ago, I fell from the Bifrost after Thor destroyed it in order to prevent the destruction of another planet. I fell into the abyss and through a crack, a hole, a tear in space and time. I came out in an alternative reality, one where I did not belong. There was still a crack open, so I used…my own magic and some Earth technology to open a door back here. I…well, I used the fact I belong here, in this reality, to draw me back through the power of the Tesseract. HOWEVER, I do not know where Rein— Loki of Asgard came from! There should be only one of me, but there seems to be two."

Fury glared at him as the ground suddenly violently jolted, causing both of them to fall to the ground. In the distance gunshots sounded. Explosions accompanied the gunshots. Loki looked up and noticed a truck barreling at them. Grabbing Fury, he rolled them out of the way just in time not to be flattened. Loki picked his head up to see Reindeer Games staring at him, an evil looking smile on his face as Jess pointed a gun and shot.

Multiple times.

Loki threw up his hand, creating a shield and blocking the bullets.

"Director? Director Fury, do you copy?" came a voice out of a contraption still in Fury's hand.

The truck vanished into the desert. Loki let the shield fall, panting a little. He rolled away from Furry and lay flat on his back on the ground. He stared blankly into the night sky, stars twinkling in the clear night sky.

"The Tesseract is with the hostile force," Fury stated. He got to his feet then held out his free hand to Loki. "Hill, do you copy?"

Loki took the man's hand and allowed himself to be hauled to his feet. He straightened out his shirt, flattened the collar of his leather jacket and dusted off his jeans again.

He felt like a truck had hit him, even though it had not.

"A lot of men still under. Don't know how many survivors," came Hill's voice along with the noise of something else.

"Sound the general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase."

"Roger that."

"Coulson, get back to base. This is a LEVEL SEVEN," Fury ordered. "As of right now, we're at war."

Fury stared at Loki with his one eye. Loki felt the weight of the gaze and met it steadily.

"What do we do?" Coulson asked.

Fury continued to eye Loki. He lowered the black box object and asked, "Well, what do we do?"

Loki jerked a little, allowing his confusion to show on his face.

"I'm not an idiot," Fury said. "I know you know something. You were not surprised about your local when you appeared. You were surprised to see…Asgard, and yet you knew what he was going to do before he did it. Did you read his mind?"

"No, I cannot read minds," Loki replied. "It was in the other reality. They had…these movies?"

Fury nodded, but looked skeptical on Loki's sanity.

"They made movies about…my brother's fall to Midgard. Thor?" Fury nodded again. "Well, there are other movies that relate to…the Avengers?"

Fury appeared to be gobsmacked for a split second before returning to his unbelieving expression.

"What are you saying, kid?"

Loki scowled at being called a _kid_. He was older than Fury.

"The movies were true— well, the one about my brother's fall to Midgard was true," Loki said. "I do not know about the other movies, but if _Thor_ was truth, it is likely in the reality I'm from— this one— the events of the other movies in the Avenger universe are also true. And the future ones…"

"What were the other movies about?"

"Captain America, the Hulk, and Iron Man," Loki said. Fury's face showed he knew who each of those people were. Loki pressed on, "Knowing from the movies where the Tesseract happened to be, I connected to it and used it to pull us here knowing we'd end up in your custody."

"And you thought we'd just let you go?"

Loki leveled the darker man a look. Fury read it correctly. He turned away from Loki and paced back and forth a moment.

"Do we win?"

"Of course. You are the heros. No one makes a movie where the villain wins," Loki pointed out. "Jessica was not in any of the movies, so her addition will vastly alter what the other Loki does from here on out. She knows all I know, if not more. She knows the flaws in the plan of his inside and out. I do not know if all her theories about him during this stage of his life are correct, but her thoughts and theories on _Thor_ were very close to home."

"So, the girl understands the homicidal maniac?"

"To a point," Loki allowed.

"So, we do not have the clear advantage," Fury sighed, turning around and staring at the sky.

"There is something wrong with her," Loki offered. "The mind control Reindeer Games did—"

"Reindeer Games?" Fury interrupted.

"You will come to understand the name," Loki offered before continuing, "The mind did not work correctly on Jessica. She is not a mindless drone as the others seem to be. She is much too cheery."

"I noticed," Fury commented. "But, she is controlled."

"Correct. I have no doubt she will do everything RG asks."

"Only with a smile and something cracky to say," Fury noted wirily.

"Her eyes are different from the others. They match RG's eyes. Everyone else has cloudy blue eyes," Loki said, raising his fingers to his lips. He tapped his lips for a moment before continuing. "They both have clear blue eyes, but neither has natural blue eyes."

Fury turned, eyeing Loki in confusion. "What are you saying? The homicidal maniac controlling my men is being controlled by another psycho?"

"That was Jessica's theory. If it is correct— that I do not know," Loki admitted. "I do know their eyes should be the same color as mine."

Fury stuck his face into Loki's, clearly studying the color of his eyes. Fury grunted and backed away.

"Should we not move to this base you instructed Coulson to go to?"

Fury regarded Loki for a moment before asking, "How did you get us out of there?"

"Teleportation. I am able to perform magic, as is RG…though, his magic is tainted by the specter he carries and whatever is poisoning his mind," Loki explained.

Fury scowled. "Just what we need."

"Do not fret. His— our brother will come. I am sure you know him," Loki said. "Also, to break the hold on the mind, all one needs is a good whack on the head. I am sure RG will get hit his head at some point, as will the rest of your men."

Fury started walking towards the base— that was mostly a hole in the ground. Loki followed at a distance.

"So, all I need to do is give everyone baseball bats and let them smack anyone with cloudy blue eyes. Great," Fury muttered.

"Correct."

Fury growled, then raised the two-way radio. "Coulson, get the Avengers together. Call Romanov, find Stark. I'll talk to Rogers. I think I know who to send to get Banner."

"Roger that."

Fury lowered the radio.

"I take it I am to get Doctor Banner," Loki said quietly from behind.

"If you are who you claim, I think you're the best man for the job," Fury threw over his shoulder. "Best send the god after the green rage monster."

Loki winced at the use of _monster_.

"I see," Loki quietly said, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

* * *

_Sweet bitter words unlike nothing I have heard / Sing along, mockingbird / You don't affect me / That's right, deliver to my heart_

_-Korn, "Coming Undone" _

* * *

Clint pulled into a gas station. He dropped down to the ground and rounded to the tank. Peaking into the trunk, he found Loki was fast asleep. He blinked in surprise at the sight Loki made asleep. He looked younger somehow, but still troubled by something.

"We gonna be here for a few?"

Clint jerked, forgetting the girl had been back there with the boss. She looked…perky.

"I think. We should grab supplies. I don't know where we're going," Clint said.

For some reason, this did not bother him. It should bother him. He'd just basically left the only solid "home" he'd had in a long time, turned his back on people he used to trust, and now had no idea where he was going. Or who he was going with— other than Selvig and Clint had decided earlier that day Selvig was mentally unbalanced to the point Clint ran out of words to describe his kind of crazy.

None of it bothered Clint (other than the lack of words for crazy). Clint didn't need to know where he was going or who he was going with. He just had to go where Loki wanted. Loki had the answers, the will, the way.

"Sure," the girl agreed, jerking Clint back into the present. She landed with a stumble, taking three awkward overly large steps. She laughed as she righted herself with some sort of alien grace. She turned and noticed Clint and bowed. "And that, sir, is why I failed at ballet. And gymnastics."

"Where'd you learn to shoot?"

"The range," she replied breezily. "Uncle's back forty. My dad was in the Army and my brother was in the Air Force. Not that they carry guns. The Air Force. It'd be kind of dumb if the Army lacked guns."

She laughed.

"So, you're not a trained soldier?" Clint asked, feeling mildly confused by her behavior earlier. She had moved as if she'd been trained for battle. And had some form of grace, where he was sure she had completely lacked it before.

"Nope," she said making the word pop out our her mouth. "So, any thoughts on what y'all want?"

"Food," Clint said, studying Loki. He could go on TV as one of those starving kids. "I got a credit card. I doubt they've had time to freeze my accounts."

"True. We left a super tiny mess for them to deal before they make your ass broke," she reminded Clint, looking untroubled. "I doubt my card works here, thought I do have cash. Does your cash look like this?"

She dug around in the purple bag slung across her body. She dug pretty deep in the bag for its size. Clint watched in wonder as she pulled a few things out that shouldn't have fit in the bag till she yanked out a huge baggie filled with cash. She brandished it at him till he nodded, agreeing that was what cash looked like.

The girl was getting odder and odder. Something told Clint he ought to be weary of someone who had over ten thousand dollars in a plastic bag.

"Where are you from? You from Asgard like Loki?" Clint asked, eyeing the bag as she took out a handful of bills.

"No. Alternate reality where your name is Jeremy Renner," she said, putting the larger bag back into the purse. "And you're an actor, not an archer-slash-assassin. Or whatever you are. I was never clear on the concept. Well, if he's like Lo, er, I mean Data— I gotta keep them straight in my head. Lo will be Data, Loki will be Lore. Anyways, if he's like Data, he'll like all things sweet. I'll get him a doughnut. Wanna coffee?"

"Sure. I'll take a doughnut too," Clint said, his stomach rumbling. "Might as well get some for everyone. Gotta feed the minions."

"I'm a minion!" the girl happily cried, clapping. "Oh, the joy! I love minions."

She scampered across the blacktop towards the twenty-four hour convenance store. Clint continued to eye the numbers roll on the gas pump while watching the others fill their trucks. He only turned when he heard someone groan behind him. Loki was awake and rubbing his head causing his long, black hair to become messy. He blinked a few times, looking alarmed.

"Hey, Boss," Clint greeted.

Loki slowly looked to Clint. "Where are we?"

"No clue. We needed gas and food. Cheery is getting doughnuts and coffee. We figured you needed to eat."

"I am fine."

"People who say they are fine never are," Cheery said, appearing at the back of the truck with two huge pink boxes. "They just came out with the fresh morning batch."

"Yum," Clint said, feeling his mouth water.

She nodded at the door to the truck bed and Clint opened it for her. She set the boxes down on the door and threw the top off. She held one out to Loki.

"Why do you believe I want that?" he spit out.

"Cause you're hungry?" she inquired, appearing honestly confused.

Clint wanted to tell the guy he needed a hundred doughnuts, but kept his silence.

"You will like it."

"Will not."

"God, you're stubborn."

"I am a god," Loki roared.

Clint took a step backwards.

"Yeah, you're a god and I'm not. I got ninety-nine problems but hunger ain't one," the girl joked, laughing at herself.

She popped a bit of doughnut into her mouth. Clint noted that even though he tried really hard not to pay attention, Loki was eyeing the doughnut. He glared icily and opened his mouth to snap at the girl, but she shoved the rest of the doughnut into his mouth.

"Now, you've got ninety-nine problems, but hunger ain't one."

She gave him a cheeky grin, vaulted out of the truckbed before Loki could react and vanished from sight.

"How did she do that?" Clint wondered out loud.

"Kill her."

"Okay."

Clint pulled the gun out of the holster he was wearing and headed in the direction she'd gone without question. He'd rather kill her with his bow, but he seemed to have left it behind.

Oops.

"Wait."

Clint stopped, turning around. Loki was holding a doughnut in front of his face, studying it as if were the answer to life itself.

"You don't know who the doppelganger was, do you?"

"Sorry, boss. Can't say I really do," Clint admitted. "He arrived with her just before you did. She told me they were from an alternative reality."

Loki sat up straighter. "Curious. Leave her."

Loki tore off a bit of doughnut and stuck it in his mouth. He appeared to be trying really hard not to enjoy the doughnut.

"Uh, boss?"

Loki cut him a look that clearly told him to state his purpose quickly.

"Where are we going?"

Loki honestly looked surprised at this question. He stared at Clint for a long time before frowning deeply.

"Somewhere we can work," Loki snapped. "Leave me."

"Yes, sir," Clint instantly said, putting his gun away. He quickly got into the truck and started it back up.

"Hi!" the girl greeted.

"How'd you…"

"You'll wanna take a left," she said. "Going left is always the best."

Not having any better option, Clint turned left out of the gas station.

* * *

_Ran to ground for awhile there / But, I came off pretty well / You, the only sense the world has ever made_

_-Elbow, "Switching Off" _


	3. Getting the Upper Hand

**Disclaimer: I do now own any of the Marvel characters. _The Avengers_ was written by Joss Whedon, movie transcript taken from the website Scribd. If you know it, I do now own it. **

* * *

**_Getting the Upper Hand_**

* * *

_When my fist clenches / Crack it open / Before I use it and loose my cool_

_-The Who, "Behind Blue Eyes"_

* * *

India was hot. Muggy. Smelly. And crowded.

"Are you sure about this?"

Loki glanced down at Agent Hill, who was doing her best to keep up with Loki as he casually strolled through the streets of Calcutta. She had been less than pleased when Fury had ordered her to come along and allow Loki do what he wanted in order to secure Banner's cooperation.

Loki was surprised. While he would have done what he wanted whether Fury allowed him to or not, it spoke volumes Fury had figured this aspect of Loki's personality out this quickly.

"I am sure," Loki replied. "While I cannot claim to personally know Doctor Banner, I do know aspects of his personality that you and your organization do not. I know what it is like to view yourself as a monster."

Hill jerked, looking a bit surprised.

"Please wait here," Loki told her in a flat tone.

Hill scowled at Loki, but nodded. "Remember your radio."

Loki rolled his eyes and pressed the gadget into his ear as Hill had shown him. He turned away from her and let her melt back into the crowd. Loki took a few more steps, towering above the locals. He stood out in more than one way, between his height and pale skin. Loki wove his way towards the building Banner was currently located within and entered. The people downstairs looked up, all appearing rather scared, confused and bewildered at his appearance.

"I'm looking for the doctor?" Loki asked, the sentence rolling out in the local dialect.

A man pointed up some rickety stairs.

"He's tending sick," the man explained. "Best not go up. Shouldn't be here."

"I will be fine," Loki assured the group, weaving his way through their home to the stairs.

He carefully tread up the stairs till his head emerged in a smelly, overly warm room that smelled of sickness and death.

"What are you doing here?" a woman demanded, standing up. She looked tired and worn. "Get out! You shouldn't be here!"

"Oh, I do know. I must see the doctor, though," Loki said, still speaking in the local dialect instead of English.

At the sound of his voice, the man called Banner turned. He blinked, taking in Loki's appearance from head to mid-chest (as his lower half was still hidden by the floor).

"What you need me?" Banner asked in the local dialect rather badly. The man was clearly bemused by Loki's arrival. Banner straightened up and looked Loki over again, looking a little curious.

Ah, Loki did not appear to be a SHEILD agent at all. Good to know.

Loki took a few more steps up and rested his arms on the floor, looking around at the room filled with sick people— all slowly dying. He was glad he'd left his leather jacket on the plane, as it was stifling— especially for a Frost Giant.

India was not a place on Midgard Loki planned to return— unless it was to one of the snow capped mountains that resided to the north.

"You do realize, Doctor Banner," Loki began switching to English, "these people are beyond your aid?"

Doctor Banner tightened his jaw, twitched a little, but said nothing.

"I did not mean you should not be aiding them," Loki quickly added. "I do realize you do this for a living as well as for other reasons. Might I speak with you when you've finished here, if you would entertain me?"

Banner stared at Loki. Loki allowed the man to study him under a microscope.

"You talk funny," a little kid said from his ankles.

"I do get that," Loki replied.

The girl squeaked and took off. Loki looked back up to find Banner's face had softened and he sighed.

"Who are you with? You're British."

Loki quirked an eyebrow.

"Not the first time I've been told that. I'm afraid I am not British, nor I am with SHEILD— the organization that informed me of your whereabouts. I know you've interacted with them before and did not have the greatest experience. I assure you, this time, though, it'll go much more smoothly. And do not ask me how I know, as it is a tedious explanation and best not told here."

"What's your name?"

"Loki."

Banner frowned, removed his glasses and cleaned them on his grimy, sweaty shirt before putting them back on.

"Like the Norse god of mischief."

Loki allowed his trademark smirk to stretch across his face and tilted his head to the side. "I am the God of Mischief, Doctor Banner."

"Sure," Banner remarked, clearly not believing Loki.

Loki shrugged. "That is who I am and that is who I will be until they tell me I am no longer."

Banner frowned, glanced down at his patients and looked at Loki again. Banner had an internal debate for five minutes before Loki knew he'd come along.

"I will wait outside for you," Loki said.

"Why do they want me?" Banner flatly asked.

"I guess you could say my evil twin is trying to take over the world," Loki drawled, wearing a sardonic smile that did not reach his eyes.

Without waiting for confirmation, Loki transported himself next to Agent Hill, who squeaked and almost fell into a bucket of something foul smelling as Loki materialized next to her.

"Apologies," Loki said.

"Did he agree to come?"

"Did he say he would come? No. Will he accompany us? Yes."

Hill stared at Loki for a long beat and said, "Fine. Do not…do that again. Walk like a normal person."

"Ah, but Miss Hill, I am not a normal person."

"I know, you're a god," Hill grumbled, glaring at Loki. She put her hand to her ear and began talking to who ever she was supposed to check in with.

"Oh, but what is a god?" Loki sardonically asked himself, watching the door of the house across the way.

"I'm going to track you through the crowd. I expect you wish to continue speaking to Banner alone?" Hill inquired.

Loki nodded.

Hill again melted away into the crowd.

A half hour later Banner exited the hovel and looked around. Loki was easy to pick out— he stuck out like a sore thumb. Upon spotting Loki, Banner sighed and trudged over.

"How did they find me?"

"I do not believe they ever lost you, Doctor," Loki offered, indicating with a hand he wanted to begin walking. Banner sighed and used his hand to make the same gesture. Loki began walking, Banner falling into step a moment later. "Nicholas Fury seems to want you on a team of superheroes he is tossing together to stop—"

"Your evil twin. Do you seriously have an evil twin? I do not remember that being part of Norse mythology."

"No. He is not my twin," Loki admitted. "I do not know where he came from."

Banner stumbled a bit and asked, "Huh?"

"It is a long story— one I will be telling once all the superheroes are gathered together," Loki explained. "However, we may speak on other things. I would rather like things sorted before we arrive."

"Uh, why?"

Loki stopped walking. "I do not believe you are a danger. I know you believe the Other Guy is a danger, but I do not."

"Well, you're a god," Banner said, running a hand through his hair and looking uncomfortable. "Are you really a god?"

"What is a god? If that means ones has strength, power, an abnormally long semi-immortal life— then yes. I am a god. However, this definition also applies to yourself."

"And why do you need me— not a god, no matter what you say— why do you need me to help you defeat your not twin who is hell bent on world domination?"

"Because you are clever, brilliant, and stronger than you believe. And it is your world. I do not live here," Loki replied. "I wound up here."

Loki straightened and began walking again. Banner caught up to him.

"Why does SHEILD really need my help? I try to avoid global disasters."

"The Tesseract, the Cosmic Cube, or the Blue Glowy Thing. It's been taken by the evil twin and he plans to use it in a nefarious manner."

"Tesseract?"

"Ah, you've heard of it."

"No, not really. Not by Tesseract, Cosmic Cube or Blue Glowy Thing."

"It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet."

Banner looked dazed.

"I have a photo," Loki said, digging out his cell phone. He swiftly called up the photo he'd found of the thing back on Other Earth and showed it to Banner.

"Your cell phone has no service," Banner commented. "And it's not a Stark phone. What is that?"

"It is a iPhone. Do you not have those here? I know you have iPods," Loki said, staring at the phone in his hands.

"Why on Earth would Apple make a phone that's basically an iPod?"

Loki ignored the question.

"We're almost to the SHEILD containment area. Their words, not mine."

Banner switched from confused to uneasy.

"Okay, well, uh, what do they want me to do? Swallow the cube?"

Loki's eyebrows rose up. "Now that's something I never thought of. I guess you could do that. But, no. Nicholas Fury only wants you to find his lost cube. It omits gamma radiation. I do not know much about gamma radiation, having only recently studied it. But, you do know much on the topic, do you not?"

Banner stared at Loki, then looked at something over Loki's shoulder before frowning deeply.

"He wants the monster, doesn't he?"

Loki pressed his lips together. "You are not a monster."

Banner bitterly laughed and began to walk away.

"Doctor Banner!"

"What does he want? Really? Does he want to put me in a cage?"

Loki made a face of distaste.

"He does!"

"No…"

"Don't lie to me!"

"I am not lying! You are not a monster!"

Banner stumbled backwards, a person darting out of his way in order to avoid him. Banner suddenly seemed to realize where he was, shook his head and began smiling.

"I'm talking to the freaking God of Lies and he tells me I'm not a monster," Banner chuckled.

Loki pressed his lips together.

This was not going as he had planned. Loki sucked in a deep breath and took a few steps closer to Banner, gently taking his upper arm and moved his hand under the loose sleeve that rested there. He allowed his hand to cool down. Banner jerked at the massive change in temperature and looked down, moving the sleeve where it covered Loki's hand.

Loki's hand was turning blue. Once Banner saw the hand, Loki dropped it from his arm and allowed it to completely turn blue. The markings slowly worked began to etch themselves onto his hand and work their way up his arm as it turned blue. He took another step closer to Banner, putting a shield around them as to not frighten the locals. He allowed the transformation to overtake his face.

"If you are a monster, then what am I?"

* * *

_Man on a mission / Can't say I miss him around / Insider information / Hand in your resignation_

_-Blink 182, "Man Overboard"_

* * *

They drove from New Mexico and into Texas.

"I'm home!" the girl shouted, appearing in front of Clint when they had stopped at another gas station somewhere in Texas. "But, not really. I don't exist here. Spooky."

Clint hummed his agreement.

"Do we know where we're going yet?"

"Loki has not issued an order other than drive," Clint replied, putting the gas pump back. "So, we'll keep going left."

At a noise behind him, Clint turned to find Loki standing behind him and leaning on his spear. He looked tried and ill, the dark circles around his eyes looking almost black. He was covered in a sheen of sweat, which could have been due to the humidity in the air, but Clint had a feeling it was something else all together. As Loki turned his gaze to Clint, his eyes were cold and he appeared to be disturbed.

"Boss?" Clint asked.

For once, the girl did not say anything.

"We need some place where they can start building the portal now," Loki said in a voice so soft Clint had to strain to hear him. "Somewhere out of…the eyes of this world."

His eyes darted around the gas station. It was early afternoon in the middle of nowhere. Of course everyone and their mother was staring at them.

"You were in the sewers," the girl suddenly said. "Granted, it was a set in Cleveland or something, but that is where you make our hideout. Like big, old fashion sewers you see in movies."

She snorted.

Loki stared at her blankly.

"But! CCTV isn't as popular out in the middle of nowhere! Where are we exactly in Texas?" the girl asked, pulling out strange looking device. Kind of looked like a Stark Phone, but it clearly wasn't. "Well, bugger. Do you have one that works? Mine's from, well, Other Earth."

This made her giggle.

"Like Other Mother. Or my brother from another mother," she snickered. She looked at Loki and said in a serious voice, "That is what you called Hemsworth at the MTV Movie Awards. The Other You. Not Data, but Hiddles. He's like you but blond."

"Quiet," Loki snarled. He looked at Clint, taking a deep breath. "Find us somewhere the scientist can work."

"Roger that, boss," Clint said, eyes roving the horizon.

"You," he snapped, glaring at the girl. "Come with me. If you speak out of turn again, I will not hesitate to kill you."

He sent an icy look at the girl, who zipped her lips shut and followed him as he limped back to the truck bed.

* * *

_All those words came undone / And now I'm not the only one / Facing the ghosts that decide if the fire insides still burns_

_-Sarah Bareilles, "Breathe Again" _

* * *

The flight from India back to the United States was long, even in the Quinjet. Banner spent most of the flight fast asleep, which was perfectly fine with Loki. He had work to do.

He had to figure out what Reindeer Games was planning to do.

And why he was even here.

They were technically the same person, Loki felt it. Yet, Loki honestly didn't understand the logic, reasoning and thought process this demented version of himself used.

He never really had.

Jess did.

Sighing deeply, Loki leaned back in his seat and stared blankly at a spot above his head.

"We've heard nothing," Hill suddenly said from next to him.

Loki startled and stared at the woman, who was glowering at him.

"I would think not," Loki assured. "I do not know if he had a clear plan other than get Tesseract to begin with, but whatever he did plan— he has likely given it up in light of new information."

Hill pressed her lips together and turned away from him, glancing at Banner as he slept peacefully. It was amazing to see the man sleep. He looked younger, more at ease and serene. There was no fighting, no weariness, no strain.

Sleep was a wonderful thing.

Sleep was something Loki had not taken part in since he'd arrived on Midgard. Luckily, he was…what he was and he didn't require as much sleep as a mortal.

"What is wrong with you? I mean, the other you," Hill corrected. "What happened? If I understood…"

"You might be able to aid better in defeating him?" Loki offered.

He crossed his legs and readjusted himself in the uncomfortable seat. Loki did not know much about Agent Hill. He remembered little of her overall role, her purpose for being. She seemed to simply take up room. Or take orders from Director Fury.

"Yes," Hill said between clenched teeth. "Director Fury believes you have vital information. You have stated you two are one in the same, yet different."

Loki leveled her a look, then bent towards her.

"He had his whole belief system, his entire life torn apart in a matter days. He discovered he was something he hated and he'd been lied to his entire life. That would be enough to send anyone into a spiral of chaos, but there was another element to this story: the fact we've always been on the outside looking in. We were different in every way that mattered on Asgard. We were tall, thin, lithe, pale and dark haired. Instead of perfecting battle techniques, we practiced magic and perfected the art. Instead of relishing in the hunt, we read books. Do you see a trend here? Brute strength, muscles, and how many you killed were trumpeted. No one cared I could tell them the secrets many realms, no one cared that I got them out of battles alive with the use of magic and my tiny knives. No one listened when I gave advise, no one cared what I had to say."

Loki paused to calm himself down.

"I was hated."

Bitterness rose up within his throat and he turned away from Hill as he feared it showed in more than his voice.

"No one thought I was worthy to be a prince, to be a king," Loki quietly admitted begrudgingly. "Then I was king and no one paid heed. I was already dangerously unbalanced. I went mad. I lost control of my emotions, lost myself and everything else…"

"When did you two become different? So far you both sound unhinged."

"The abyss. I fell into the abyss hoping to end it all," Loki said. "This is where I became me, and he became himself."

Loki took a deep breath and turned back to Hill. She was looking at him critically.

"I fell into the company of Jessica Witton and became depressed. The other one did not. I do not know what happened to him. He's warped and twisted, he's fueled by his hate, his anger, his lack of self-worth. He is angry. He is filled with rage and arrogance. He is a danger to himself and others because he is currently delusional and thirsty for revenge against those who have wronged him."

"Delusional?" Hill faintly asked.

Loki smirked. "Indeed. Delusions of grander."

"You never had them?"

Loki turned away from her and uncrossed his legs. Pressing his hands onto his thighs he studied the pale fingers pressing into the dark jeans he still wore.

"No. I never wanted the throne," he admitted quietly. "Even whilst on it, I didn't want it. Still have no interest in it. I'd rather work in the background than lead in the foreground."

Hill made a noise in her throat, but said nothing till she told the whole plane in general they were ten minutes out and left.

Loki decided it was high time to wake Banner, which he did with care. Banner quickly readied himself for landing and the pair chatted quietly till the plane touched down.

"Are we the first ones here?" Banner asked as the door opened and the ramp lowered. "And where are we?"

"I believe we're on some sort of…ship," Loki offered, knowing Banner wouldn't know what _Helicarrier_ meant.

Banner wandered off towards the railing of the ship and came to a stop. Loki stood near the plane and watched him. A few minutes later, another plane landed. Turning, Loki noticed a red haired woman standing at attention. She greeted two people who got off the plane and began walking with the tall, blond one. Loki waited quietly as they headed towards Banner.

"Trading cards?" the tall, blond man asked, looking confused.

"They're vintage, he's very proud," the woman reported smugly, smiling a very small, controlled smile at the man. "This is Loki."

"What?" the other man asked, whirling around and staring at Loki.

Loki blinked several times, staring at the man in front of him. They were roughly the same height, but the other man was much wider. Instantly, between the blonde hair, clear muscle mass, and startling blue eyes, Loki was reminded of Thor. Yet, there was something in the man's startled expression and stance that spoke of innocence, kindness, and the lack of brutal arrogance Thor carried around on his shoulders.

The man was a leader, but not all the time. He was not a king, but merely a solider who knew when to lead and when to step back.

Taking in the man before him, Loki swallowed thickly. There was something about Steve Rogers at that moment— be it his clothing or simply seeing him in person for the first time— something about him that caused Loki to forget for a moment the man thought Loki was the enemy. Something that caught his breathe and made him simply stare for a beat too long till he reeled himself in.

"Loki Laufey-Odinson, not to be confused with Loki of Asgard— as he is calling himself," Loki smoothly replied, extending his hand. "We are quite different people."

"Oh, good," the blond man breathed, taking Loki's hand. "I mean..I'm Steve Rogers. Captain…Captain America, uh…"

Rogers looked flustered suddenly.

"Pleasure is all mine," Loki said, letting the man's hand go. To hide his own disconcert, Loki turned to the red headed woman who was watching them. "I take it you are Agent Romanov?"

She nodded her head.

"Doctor Banner?" Loki called.

The more the merrier.

Banner turned around, startled at the sight of new people, then slowly ambled over towards the group.

"This is Captain Steve Rogers, fondly known as Captain America," Loki introduced, motioning to Rogers. "Agent Romanov, known as the Black Widow."

Banner held out his hand to Romanov, who took it. She looked a bit stuff.

"I believe we're only missing Stark," Loki mused.

"What?" Rogers asked, appearing mildly confused.

"Iron Man?" Loki prompted, telling himself he did not like the look of confusion on the other man's face.

"Oh, him," Rogers said, shaking his head. "Doctor Banner."

Rogers stuck his hand out. Banner stared at it a moment, before taking Rogers' hand and shaking firmly.

"Oh, yeah. Hi," Banner said. "They told me you'd be coming."

Rogers looked mildly embarrassed for some reason. He cleared his throat and said, "Word is you can find the cube."

"Is that the only word on me?" Banner mildly inquired.

Rogers seemed to understand what Banner was hinting at. He tightened up and looked serious. "Only word I care about."

Banner took the sentiment and nodded, looking away.

"Were you told nothing of me?" Loki inquired.

Rogers looked uneasy, ran a hand through his hair and said, "Uh, no, sir. Well, I was simply told you were the man with the cube. Who, uh, stole it."

Loki glanced at Romanov who was staring him down now.

"Wait, are you our secret weapon?" Rogers asked.

"Don't give him a larger head then he's got," Banner muttered, watching the activity on the deck before glancing between Loki and Rogers. "Must be strange for you two, all of this."

"Well, this is actually kind of familiar," Rogers admitted. His body language eased and it was clear he felt at home in the militarized environment the deck provided.

"Gentlemen, you may wanna step inside in a minute," Romanov said. "It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."

The men on the deck finish securing all the planes and scurried off. The whole ship began to quake and shake.

"Is this a submarine?" Rogers asked, eyes wide.

"Really? They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" Banner asked, glaring at Loki before running to the edge of the ship.

Loki laughed as the two men looked over the railing to see the huge lift fans, which made it clear they intend to fly, not sink. Rogers turned back to Loki and Romanov with a look of awe on his face, while Banner looked a bit…ill.

"This is so much worse," he moaned.

Loki crossed to where Banner was standing and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. "I am sure it will be fine. Let us retire inside. I am sure Nicholas Fury has things he wants to say to you three. Stark is not due till much later tonight."

"And your brother?"

"Thor will not arrive until RG allows Hemidall to see him and the trouble he plans to cause," Loki explained, guiding Banner towards the entrance to the main body of the ship.

"So, we're not going to hear your story till then?" Romanov flatly asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Thor?" Rogers asked. "Hemidall? Am I supposed to know these people?"

"Thor. My adoptive brother," Loki replied. "Hemidall is All-Seeing and watches everything. RG will want Thor here to witness his toils come to fruition."

At the thought of seeing the look on his brother's face when he realized there were two Lokis was enough to make Loki grin widely.

"Don't do that," Romanov warned. "You look like him when you do that."

She eyed him in distrust and stomped off.

"You do," Banner agreed, eyeing Loki.

Rogers shoved his hands into his pockets and eyed Loki out of the corner of his eye as they headed towards the bridge.

"So, uh, what does RG stand for?"

* * *

_We are compelled to do what we must do / We are compelled to do what we have been forbidden_

_-Dashboard Confessional, "The Secret's In The Telling"_

* * *

They commandeered a farm somewhere in the middle of nowhere Texas.

And it smelled.

Not the house, but the area around the joint. Clint couldn't figure out if it was the livestock that lived around there for miles upon miles or the fact someone was drilling and processing oil somewhere.

They had been at the joint for awhile— Clint wasn't sure how long having no care to keep track of time. Loki did not require it, so Clint didn't bother. What Loki did want was a lookout, so Clint was seated on the roof of a farmhouse that has seen better days. All he could see for miles was flat land littered with cows and windmills.

There were a lot of stinking windmills.

"There you are."

Clint looked over his shoulder to find the girl, dressed like a true Texan in jeans, a plaid shirt and cowboy boots. The only thing missing was a cowboy hat.

She plopped down next to him.

"I haven't seen you in awhile," Clint said, eyeing her.

She appeared to be unharmed. Cling had honestly figured Loki had offed her, since he hadn't seen her in so long. And it was so quiet around the joint.

Then again, Clint hadn't seen or heard much from Loki since they'd arrived at the farmhouse.

"I've been having a powwow with Locutus," she explained. "Wanted to know all I knew about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Clint doubted that, but said nothing.

"So, I told him about _The Avengers_," she went on, picking at the peeling roof tiles.

The wind kicked up, blowing the horrible smelling air all around them. Strains of hair escaped the sloppy ponytail the girl had forced her dark hair into. The loose hairs danced on the breeze, making her look like some sort of ad for Texas living. If only the tourism industry were here to photograph it…

"I had to show him what a movie was, as he didn't know. He refused to accept the fact on the world I came from he's known as Tom Hiddleston, has curly blond hair and blue eyes and Loki doesn't exist except in stories. And I think he blew a blood vessel when I told him Thor had his own movie. Granted, I quickly explained the fact while Thor has the movie, it's Loki and Hiddles who've got the army of fangirls."

"Huh?"

"That's the name of the actor who played Loki in the movies, Tom Hiddleston. After _Thor_ was released, Loki became rather popular. After _The Avengers_ was released, he had an army of fangirls," she explained, glancing over at him. "And he knew it."

Clint was still confused, but shrugged. She turned away.

"This place lacks Tom Hiddleston. Targic. At least it's got Benedict Cumberbatch. Man, that would suck not to be able to throw that name around any longer. Great name."

She proceeded to repeat the name several times in varying accents.

"You seriously need help," Clint muttered.

"Oh, I know," she cheerfully agreed. "Locutus wants to see you. I told him all I could about the Avengers and why his plan failed at life during the movie, but you can tell him more details about the Mod Squad than I can."

She pushed herself to her feet and climbed back over the roof, vanishing from view. Clint took a different way down, going over the edge to climb in through the window below him. He had no idea how she'd found him. So far no one had bothered him.

Then again, Clint hadn't really seen anyone lately.

Landing with a thud in the empty bedroom he'd claimed as his, Clint straightened and headed downstairs. He had no idea where Loki currently was located, but he guessed somewhere near the Tesseract.

Clint entered the kitchen to find Loki looming over the scientist, watching them carefully as they worked. He looked a lot better than he had when Clint had first seen him. The bags under his eyes were gone and his hair didn't look as dry and mad.

Clint cleared his throat. "You wanted to see me, Boss?"

Loki turned and stared at Clint for a moment before nodding. "Yes. I need to know what…what these Avengers are like. Who they are…I need to know their weaknesses, strengths, fears…"

Clint nodded.

"I have need for them," Loki added. "Tell me all about the pitfalls of the initiative. Jessica has told me it was scrapped."

"It was, sir. The personalities of those involved were clashing and too different. They had no desire to work together. Or reason to. SHEILD thought it was…too much trouble. The project was actually a pet project of Director Fury's."

"Hmmm. Please, Agent Barton, tell me more about each person who had been considered," Loki urged.

Words began to flow out of Clint's mouth at an alarming rate.

"Stark doesn't work well with others. Stark talks too much, thinks too much of himself, and never takes anything remotely seriously," Clint complained. "He is famous, tabloid fodder and rich. He's a known superhero because he couldn't keep his trap shut."

"And Stark is…"

"Iron Man."

"What is this man of iron?"

"It's a suit…uh, made out of technology?" Clint asked, feeling baffled. The girl surely had told Loki about Iron Man. "He's a genius. He built it himself and blew up some terrorists."

"How would you…weigh his genius?" Loki inquired.

"Off the charts," Clint bluntly said.

Loki hummed. "Do you find him reckless?"

"Yes."

Loki smirked.

"Tell me of the one they call the Hulk."

"Banner's afraid of other people, afraid of killing and riddeled with guilt. He lives off the grid and tries to be a good person, but he's got a freaking monster living within him."

"Do you know much about the monster?"

Loki's eyes grew a bit distant and his mouth went tight. Clint frowned.

"No. But it's reported the monster has one setting: SMASH."

Loki nodded. He was not surprised.

"And the man's level of genius?"

"On par with Stark's, but in a different area. Also, he's not full of himself, but like Stark, he works on his own. Not exactly a team player," Clint reported. "Either of them."

"Jessica informs me that you know much about…Agent Romanov?" Loki asked.

Clint spoke at great length about Natasha. He told Loki all her fears, dreams, hopes, and strengths. He told Loki her weaknesses, told Loki how he'd found her, was told to kill her, but did not. He explained the concept of redemption that had been told to him when Coulson had found him and recruited him. He explained that while they were both dripping in red, maybe someday, they'd even out and be redeemed.

Clint had seen a bit of himself in Natasha.

Loki shifted a little as Clint began to speak about redemption. His eyes flickered between green and blue.

"Boss?" Clint asked, pausing.

"Thank you, Agent Barton," Loki snapped. He turned away from Clint and stared at the people working on the Tesseract. "Please tell me about SHEILD's procedures, security measures and weapon arsenal."

Clint dumped the entire load of information onto Loki. After he was done, Loki cocked his head to the side.

"Thank you, Agent Barton. That will be all."

Clint nodded. Loki turned and walked across the room and sat down on a box, resting the specter across his lap.

"You look better," Clint said before he could stop himself.

Loki looked at him and nodded. "Thank you, Agent Barton. Jessica, while an annoying nat, has fed and made me up. She seems most concerned with physical appearances."

Clint blinked. She'd put makeup on Loki?

Clint waited for orders, waited to be told what to do next, but Loki's eyes went unfocused and he seemed to space out.

"He's communicating with The Other," came the girl's voice from beside him.

"Who?"

"His boss's minion, or something. I don't know," she said. "Sandwich?"

She held a platter full of sandwiches. Clint took one.

"He'll be awhile. I think they're threatening him with pain worse than death or something stupid. Sit, take a load off, eat. I have a feeling you're gonna need a nap," she babbled at top speed.

Clint narrowed her eyes, not liking that someone was out there threatening his boss. He ate his sandwich and stood next to Jessica, who was trying to feed the scientists. As he eyed Loki, a voice— that annoying voice in the back of his head— began screaming at him to take Loki down while he was spaced out. Clint turned away from Loki and stomped up the stairs, squashing the voice down.

The voice was stupid. It knew nothing.

* * *

_If I ever get back down / Find a map that take me back / Through the wounded / Through the wars / To a time that came before_

_-Bat for Lashes, "Peace of Mind"_


	4. So Much to Discover

**Disclaimer: I do now own any of the Marvel characters. The Avengers was written by Joss Whedon, movie transcript taken from the website Scribd. If you know it, I do now own it.**

***"Dani Califorinia" written by Flea, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis, and Chad Smith**

* * *

_**So Much to Discover**_

* * *

_But I like to keep some things to myself / I like to keep my issues drawn_

_-Florence & The Machine, "Shake It Out"_

* * *

The Helicarrier bridge was rather…smug. It toadied the fact it was a technological wonder, filled with little worker drones to carry out the whims of whoever was actually in charge of SHEILD at the end of the day— that faceless group of people known as the Council. (Loki had over heard Fury having a heated conversation with this faceless group before leaving for India. They were not happy with Loki's involvement since the enemy shared his face and showed up at the same time.)

"Gentlemen," Fury greeted as Rogers, Banner and Loki approached him on the bridge.

Rogers gazed around with a look of awe and for some reason handed Fury ten dollars. Banner looked at Loki, question in his eyes. Loki shrugged, having no idea what that interchange had been about. Fury's expression was smug as he pocketed the bill.

"Doctor," Fury greeted, hand extended towards Banner. Banner eyed the hand, but reluctantly took it. "Thank you for coming."

"Thanks for asking nicely," Banner allowed, glancing at Loki. "So, uh…how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're free," Fury said, as they dropped hands. He lanced his fingers together behind his back and stood with his feet parted hip distance and looked down at Banner through his one good eye.

"Where are you with that?" Banner asked, shifting a little in discomfort and not looking at Fury.

Fury turned his eye to Loki. Loki looked over Fury's shoulder to the smaller man in a black suit approaching. He was reading a file folder, which he looked up from as he joined the group.

"We're sweeping everything wirelessly accessible camera on the planet," Agent Coulson said, looking at Rogers. It seemed to be too much for the man, as he didn't finish giving them the information. Banner looked to Coulson, waiting for what else the man had to say.

"They are looking everywhere they can get eyes and ears," Loki finished.

Coulson nodded, eyeing Loki for a moment before turning his attention back to Rogers.

"That's still not gonna find them in time," Romanov insisted, staring a computer screen behind Fury which displayed Barton's face. It was running a program searching for any CCTV cameras that had picked up his image.

The last known sighting of the man had been at a gas station in Floydada, Texas. That had been over forty-eight hours ago.

"Why can't you just tell us where the cube is?"

She glared at Loki.

"I do not know where he went," Loki reminded her. "I do not have a homing beacon on the man. There is no script to follow, no place he must be. The only thing I am sure of, what he did before he will not do this time. Upon taking Jessica, the game changed."

Romanov blankly stared at Loki. To anyone else, she was expressionless and unfeeling but Loki saw a minor shift in her eyes.

She felt sympathy for him, as Clint was in the same situation as Jess, thus Loki and Romanov were in the same boat.

In a sense.

"Have you narrowed the field?" Banner asked. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

"How many are there?" Fury countered.

Banner thought for a moment. He looked away and ran a hand through his already messy hair.

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

"Romanov, would you show Doctor Banner where his lab is?" Fury commanded.

Romanov nodded curtly and walked off. Banner turned to Loki. By the set of the man's face, Loki knew he was not about to follow the redhead without Loki by his side. Loki nodded and glanced at Fury. Fury rolled his eye, turning his attention to Rogers.

Loki wanted to linger, so he left.

"You're gonna love it," Romanov insisted when Banner and Loki had caught up with her. "We got all the toys."

"I don't doubt it," Banner muttered.

Loki trailed behind them as they made their way to the lab. Romanov opened the door and waited for the two to enter. She explained to Banner he pretty much had free-rein with any lab equipment and if he needed anything to let her know. She turned on her heel and left. Loki sat down on a stool and stared blankly at the computer screen.

"She's afraid of me," Banner stated flatly.

"Fool," Loki muttered.

"Or she's iffy on you," Banner countered. "I think the fact you…well, seem to know things she doesn't irks her."

"I look like the man who took her partner away," Loki replied. "And I do know things she does not. Quite a bit. Side effect of several centuries old."

Banner let out an amused snort.

"What do you think his next move will be?" Banner asked, eyes on a tablet he had found somewhere. "I mean, even if you don't outright know…why does she think that?"

"From what I told Fury to get him get him to not shoot me in the face," Loki replied. "As you know, I'm not of this world. I spent time in a universe I only existed within fiction. This fiction told the story we're currently living with some differences."

"What?" Banner asked, setting the tablet on the steel table in front of Loki.

"It'll make sense later. He will need iridium."

"Uh, why?"

"Stabilization?" Loki tried, face crumpling in thought. He turned to face a nearby computer. "So the portal he wishes to create with the Tesseract won't collapse. Can you create a search for that as well? Or I could do it if you explain the algorithms you are going to use for the gamma radiation."

Loki looked away from the monitor to find Banner studying him carefully. Banner wanted the full story— details, the same details Romanov was desperate for that Loki was still withholding in favor of telling the tale once when everyone was together. Fury knew most of the tale, but only enough to trust Loki enough not to kill and enslave the world.

Banner, though, was not an idiot, so he asked, "Where'd he get it before?"

"Somewhere in Germany," Loki replied, smiling at Banner. "Barton claimed the Tesseract told him his next target."

Banner frowned. "The cube talks?"

"Oh, they all think it speaks to them," Loki replied. "Selvig thought for weeks it was speaking to him. I am sure RG thinks this as well. I've been working with the Tesseract and have yet to hear it speaking."

Banner frowned and continued to poke the tablet. He handed it to Loki, who smiled and began to create a program to find all the storage areas for iridium over the world. The two worked in compatible silence for a few hours.

"If you're not of this world, how come you understand our world's science and math so easily?" Banner asked.

"I learned," Loki stated as there was an explosion of activity somewhere in the Hellicarrier. Banner set the tablet down.

"What is going on?"

"I believe they found your evil twin," Banner said, peering out the large window that overlooked the bridge.

Loki turned away from the tablet he had been using and tapped the computer screen in front of him. Sure enough, after a little digging, he found the image that had set forth the flurry of commotion. He turned the screen towards Banner, who moved closer to see.

"Wow. That's him?" Banner asked, cleaning his glasses then pushing them back on his face. "I can see you two do look a like. But…"

"He looks insane?"

"No. Tired. I was going to go with tired," Banner offered. "He's not exactly hiding, is he?"

"No. He wishes to be found," Loki replied.

Fury burst into the room, making Banner stumble backwards.

"So you know. What's he doing?" Fury demanded.

"What he did the first time," Loki admitted, flicking the image off the screen with his index finger. "I don't understand why, though. He knows we will know what he is up to."

"Is this distraction for likely the same reason?"

"Yes and no. He will know we know what he needs," Loki reminded the man. "He should also know we've got people at every single source of iridium all over the world."

"We've locked down and removed all iridium from our locations, but we're not the only people out there who hold samples of it," Fury said, having already known iridium was needed. "Did you do something about the other sources?"

"I might have," Loki admitted, holding the tablet out he'd been working on for the past two hours.

Fury sighed, taking the tablet and flicking through what Loki had done. "Who is he going after in Germany?"

"I never paid attention to who he took the eyeball from," Loki admitted. Banner cringed. "I never thought the movie to come to life, Director."

"They're still planning to use Stark Tower," Fury announced.

Loki frowned. "How do you know?"

"Not an idiot," Fury snapped. "There's a few strange things going on. Here look at this."

Fury turned one of the monitors to Loki and Banner. It showed a map of United States of America. There were several huge storms off the East Coast, a huge rain cloud above Los Angeles, a snow storm brewing in the mountains near Denver, and the temperature was dropping in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Atlanta at an alarming rate.

"What's he up to?" Fury demanded.

"Creating chaos with weather?" Loki hazarded.

"Why? If he needs to use Stark Tower, why is he making all this crazy ass weather? People are panicking. New York City is being evacuated, the entire state of Texas is freaking out, Los Angeles is a mess, and Chicago seems to think it's going to get blown up."

"What?" Banner asked.

"There have been several bomb threats called in," Fury reported. "The Loop has been evacuated for hours."

"Well, when he opens the portal and allows the army in, there won't be many civilian causalities," Loki offered.

"Is the weather real?" Banner asked, eyeing the huge hurricane coming at New York City.

"That's the thing," Fury said, flicking the map with his finger to show a map that looked perfectly normal.

"There's no weather disasters," Banner murmured.

"Nope. Just a bunch of panicked people," Fury announced. "So, what's he doing?"

"What we do best," Loki chuckled, leaning back in his seat. "Creating chaos in order to distract you from whatever he's actually doing."

Fury looked, well, furious.

"Are you sending Captain Rogers out after RG?" Loki asked.

"Asgard? Yes. I want you to go along. Suit up."

"No."

Fury put both hands on the table between himself and Loki and leaned forward, sticking his nose into Loki's personal space.

"You will go. End of story," Fury ordered. He whirled around, his leather trench coat flaring.

Loki cursed under his breath.

"Why don't you want to go?"

Loki slowly stood up, closing his eyes. He could feel his armor within Jess's magicked bag. He reached out and summoned it. It appeared in a heap at his feet.

Loki cursed again.

"What did you just do?"

"Summoned my armor from the bag Jessica carries," Loki explained. "Cannot go into battle without ones armor."

"I take it you didn't want it to land in a heap at your feet?" Banner hazarded.

Loki didn't answer, simply gathered the mess up and frowned.

"What?"

"The magic has been drained from it," he stated flatly.

"Does that mean it won't work?"

"No. But…where did it go?"

"It?"

"The magic."

"Your evil twin?"

Loki shook his head. He would feel that if that were the case. Instead, he felt nothing. None of his magic, no tainted magic. The heap of leather, cloth and metal felt just like leather, cloth and metal.

"So, uh, that's why it landed in a heap?"

Loki curtly nodded. He strode out of the room.

* * *

_Robbin' on a bank in the state of Indiana / She's a runner, rebel and a stunner / Oh her merry way sayin' baby whatcha gonna do _

_-Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Dani California" _

* * *

Clint sat on the roof and noticed a cloud of dust on the horizon. Soon, he heard the whine of an expensive sports car engine. Straightening, Clint drew his bow (he'd obtained a new one—not as good as the one he'd left behind, but it was working).

The car turned down the dusty road leading to the farmhouse. Clint remained where he was, arrow at the ready. The car, a white Audi R8, came to a squealing stop right in front of the farmhouse and the door flew open.

"Yo! Clint! You can go at ease or whatever," called the man who'd gotten out of the car.

Clint didn't lower his bow.

"Agent Barton," came Loki's voice from below.

Clint lowered the bow.

"Please come down. You will be leaving shortly," Loki said, appearing next to the white sports car.

Clint climbed down, slinging his bow over his shoulder and joined the man (who appeared to be Tony Stark) and Loki at the car. Clint frowned as he got closer and felt there was something off about Stark. He was moving wrong.

"Agent Barton, you and Jessica will head to California ahead of the Selvig and the others," Loki stated.

"Where's Jessica?" Clint ventured to ask.

"Right here," Stark said happily.

Clint stared at Stark, noticing the green-blue. Clint was pretty sure Stark didn't have light colored eyes, but he wasn't sure. But, if Jessica had turned herself into Stark that would explain what was off about him.

"I will be leaving shortly to draw the Avengers out," Loki went on. "I will let Jessica know when it is time for you to come get me."

Clint nodded. Loki vanished into thin air. Clint turned to Stark/Jessica.

"All right, in you get," Stark/Jessica said, opening the door and getting back into the car.

Clint followed, feeling wrong footed.

"Oh, don't look so put out," Stark/Jessica stated. "It's all part of the plan. You know they know what Reindeer Games had originally planned because of Data. So, we're just changing up the plan. We need an arc reactor, right? Guess where there are a ton of arc reactors and the juice to power them?"

"Everyone knows Stark Tower in NYC is powered by the most powerful arc reactor," Clint stated.

"Exactly," Stark/Jessica said, gunning the engine. "So, we're going where they won't expect us to go. California here we come!"

Clint hung of for dear life as Jessica/Stark tore down the dirt road at a hundred miles an hour.

"Won't Stark notice if you break into his house looking like him?" Clint hollered over the noise of the engine as she raced down the road.

"He'll be too busy to notice us in LA!" Stark/Jessica yelled back. "Locutus and I got it all worked out."

She tapped her head.

"Okay," Clint said, all the while that stupid voice in the back of his mind yelling and screaming at him. He gave into the voice for a second when he asked, "What did…how…are you Stark?"

"Magic. Do I really look like him?" Stark/Jessica asked, looking at him with an expression that looked quite out of place on Stark's face.

"Yeah. It's freaky."

"Cool. I sound and look like me to myself," Stark/Jessica stated, glancing in the review mirror. "Anyways, Jarvis will recognize my voice, or Stark's voice, so it'll let me in and give me access. Locutus has also gifted me some mojo in order to get passed security and stuff to get into Stark's lab. Once we're there, we'll need to get all the crap together. I've got a list. By the time we get that, the scientists will arrive and they can set up the other stuff."

"Okay," Clint agreed. "When do we go get Loki?"

"Like he said. He'll let me know. He's creating a distraction right now to get Stark's attention at the right moment. If he's busy fighting our wonderful leader, he won't notice us busting into his Malibu home."

She cackled (again, sounding wrong coming out of Stark), and gunned the car again as she hit smooth pavement.

Clint was going to die in a car crash— he was sure of it.

* * *

_This is the face that stones you cold / This is the moment that needs to breathe / These are the claws that scratch these wounds_

_-Metallica, "Some Kind of Monster"_

* * *

"You look uneasy," Rogers said, eyeing Loki.

Loki looked over at Rogers, all dressed up in his brand new (Coulson designed) Captain America costume.

It was distracting. Loki blankly stared at the center of the man's chest, right at the huge, white star. He focused on it for a moment, trying to get a hold on his wandering, conflicted mind.

"I am," Loki allowed, cocking his head to the side, sight still trained on the star.

Rogers shifting, causing the star to move. Loki dragged his eyes upwards to the man's face.

"Why? Doesn't he already know all about you?"

Loki looked away, staring blankly across to the other side of the plane. For some unknown reason, Rogers had sat next to Loki. He had the entire plane, but chose the seat next to Loki.

Why was he seated next to Loki?

"That is not why I am uneasy, Captain," Loki truthfully said.

It was part of the reason, but mostly he was uneasy because Rogers was next to him in that blasted outfit. In person. Rogers in person was so much worse than Rogers on a television.

"Are we walking into a trap?"

"I'm sure we are," Loki sardonically drawled, turning his head back to Rogers.

Captain America looked uneasy now. He rubbed the back of his neck and finally took his blue eyes off Loki.

Loki felt himself sag.

"While I am sure we won't learn anything from him, Fury still wishes to obtain the man and question him. And so into the trap we will go," Loki said, false cheer in his tone.

"Loki is uneasy for another reason," Romanov announced from the front of the plane over the com link they all had shoved in their ears. "Thor is supposed to show up."

"Oh. Your brother," Rogers remembered. He looked baffled for a moment. "Why are you uneasy about your brother? Won't you be glad to see him?"

"Last time I saw him I fell into the abyss," Loki flatly said, turning away from the wide, blue eyes. "Last time I saw him…I was quite unlike I am currently."

He was broken, angry, mad, desperate and filled with self-loathing the last time he'd faced Thor. He had done and said things he deeply regretted.

But, that was not the reason for his unease. He was looking forward to seeing Thor again— mostly due to the fact he wanted to see Thor's face when faced with two Lokis.

"There seems to be a situation," Romanov interrupted, her tone of voice indicating her slight puzzlement at the situation.

Rogers stood up, grabbing his patriotic shield and strode towards the cock-pit.

"Loki Number Two is attempting to subjugate Germany," Romanov dryly reported.

"The entire country?" Rogers asked, looking mind boggled. "And why is it always Germany?"

"No, just a plaza. He's also in London, Paris, Prague, Stockholm and Copenhagen."

"How?" Rogers asked. "And which one do we go to?"

Rogers turned and looked at Loki, who rested his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands together.

"Which city is central?" Loki asked.

"What do you mean? You mean in the middle of all the locations he's currently popping up at?"

"Yes, Romanov."

"Copenhagen."

"And that is where he is."

"Do I even want to know?" Rogers asked, peering at Loki with a quirked eyebrow.

"He's using illusions and magic," Loki explained.

Rogers looked intrigued and retook the seat next to Loki. His interest caught Loki by surprised. Even after the interest Jess had shown, it still astounded Loki if someone was interested in the subject of magic.

"So, what is he doing exactly? Can you…you feel it? I heard you talking to Bruce about your armor…and how it lacked your magic," Rogers explained, blushing a little. "Can you feel the other you?"

"No. I can't currently feel him, but he'd projecting over a great distance. He needs to somewhere central to have any sort of control over the projections," Loki explained. "He likely went to all the cities, left some sort of crystal to channel his magic. He is likely still weak from whatever he'd been through."

"Is that good?"

"He will be not be that hard to capture."

"To Copenhagen," Romanov said, turning the plane. Rogers clung onto the seat in order to not crash into Loki as the plane sharply banked. It still did almost no good and the solid form of Captain America crashed into Loki.

"Sorry," Rogers apologized.

"It's quite fine, Captain," Loki assured as the two men righted themselves.

Twenty minutes later, Romanov landed and let Loki and Rogers out. As soon as they were clear of the plane, Loki grabbed Roger's by the wrist (ignoring the odd feeling that shot through him at the contact) and transported them to Amalienborg Castle, where RG was waiting. Sure enough, RG sat atop the statue in the middle of the plaza. Anyone who had found themselves in the plaza on that long, summer night was kneeling in the square, heads pressed to the bricks. RG was spinning his specter in his hand and staring blankly at the sky above him, monologuing about how freedom was horrible and how the mortals would relish when he was finally king of the world.

"Loki!" Steve shouted, weaving his way through the crowd.

"Ah, Captain America!" RG crowed, swinging his legs over the horse and jumping down off the statue. He landed with a dull thud before straightening up to his full height.

RG looked better than he did the last time Loki had laid eyes upon him. He was dressed in full battle gear, which looked massively different from the armor Loki wore. It still was clearly influence by Asgardian standards but RG had added his own flair, thus making it his own all together. The helmet that adorned his head had much longer horns than Loki remembered the helmet he'd lost having.

RG was over compensating for something.

"I'm so glad you could make it," RG continued. He twirled the scepter in his hands as he jumped over the fence surrounding the horse statue. The crowd he had subjugated began to whisper amongst themselves. "SILENCE!"

The crowd fell silent, clearly frightened.

"Loki, stop this," Rogers went on. "Let them go."

"Why would I ever do that, Captain? I am here to rule," RG said, still spinning the scepter. The crowd had clearly seen what it could do, as they all shuddered as RG breezed passed. Loki scanned the area for the injured or dead, but found none. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes ones life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. I am here to free the world from this— I bring freedom, I bring peace. Do you not see?"

Loki moved behind Rogers, masking himself in shadows as to not alarm the people in the square. RG was so focused on Rogers, he failed to feel Loki or notice the use of magic before him.

"Nope. Can't say I do," Rogers snapped.

RG sighed, finally reaching Rogers. He stopped twirling the scepter. "The soldier. A man out of time. Tragic story. Did you miss out on love?"

"I'm not the one out of time," Rogers calmly said.

"Must we fight?"

"I don't know, must we?"

"I don't know either," RG drawled, looking over his shoulder. "Where's my double? I know he is here. I can feel him."

Rogers did not respond. RG leant forward, something gleeful appearing in his expression.

"Oh, what's this?"

"My face."

"The stories it tells, my good Captain."

"Well, I hope they're good," Rogers calmly replied.

"Oh, they are," RG said, stepping even closer to Rogers.

Loki moved closer to Rogers, glaring at his double. His double looked up, right to where Loki stood.

"Oh, there you are," RG said, waving his hand. Loki felt a ripple flow over him and knew he was now visible.

The gasps of the crowd helped as well.

"Why, hello. I do not believe we've properly met," RG drawled, pointing the specter between Rogers and Loki.

"Can't say we have," Loki agreed. "I'm Loki."

"I am Loki of Asgard and I am—"

"If you say you're burdened with glorious purpose again, I will shoot your eye out," Loki snapped.

"So, if I say I am burdened with glorious—" the man paused for an insanely long time before finishing. "Justification? Ambition? Dedication? Porpoises?"

"Porpoises?" Rogers asked, lowering the shield a little from where he'd held it in front of him ready to toss at RG.

"You do know what those are, don't you captain?" RG asked, sighing over dramatically. "Shall we fight?"

"Sure."

RG twirled around and shot a combination of knives and energy blasts at Loki and Rogers, causing the pair to dive in two different directions.

Rogers swung his shield from where he'd fallen, hitting RG in the side of the head, sending the man flying backwards as the noise of two metals clashing rang through the square. The crowd, realizing they could scatter, quickly began screaming and running. RG roared, flying at Rogers. The two met and fought.

Rogers ended up being thrown almost clear across the square. Loki managed to cushion his crash to the ground while he attempted to keep civilians out of the way of the battle. He turned to move a child when suddenly he found himself face to face with himself. He shoved his fist through the projection and found the entire square filled with RG doubles.

He also realized as his hand went through the projection the spell RG used to keep himself hidden from Hemidall was still going strong.

Loki cursed rather colorfully.

"Loki, what the hell are you doing?" Romanov demanded over the radio as the roar of the Quinjet's engines sounded in the square.

"Oh, I don't know," Loki admitted, punching through another projection of RG in his anger.

"Subdue him!"

"Captain America is doing a fine job keeping his attention," Loki tried.

"YOU CAN DO IT FASTER!" Romanov shouted.

"I'm waiting for Stark," Loki hissed.

In truth, Loki was unweaving the masking spell he'd put on himself in order to get Thor's attention. If Hemidall couldn't see what was happening, Thor would never show up. If Thor didn't show up, well, Loki didn't want to think about what might happen if Thor did not show up. If push came to shove, Loki wanted Thor's strength on the Avenger's side.

As Loki undid the spell while RG and Rogers duked it out, Loki noticed RG smirking.

Loki cursed again.

"He planned on this!"

"Planned what?" Romanov asked, sounding annoyed.

"For me to drop my spell and him to keep his!" Loki hissed, upset he'd failed to realize this before.

Loki let out a few more choice words.

"I have no idea what spell you're talking about, but help out Captain America!"

"I AM!" Loki shouted, running through the line of RGs who were all cackling.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the night air was filled with some sort of loud noise that must have been someone's idea of music. Loki stopped moving and noticed RG's face. He had a smug look upon his face as he met Roger's shield with his staff blow for blow.

Loki's mind scrambled for why RG would be pleased that Stark had arrived.

No matter, Loki finished undoing his spell with a twist of his wrist then reached into the empty space between the realms he used as storage.

RG knew what he was up to and it was Loki's turn to smirk.

"No!" RG shouted.

Out of the empty space, Loki pulled out an old magical staff and used it to end the spell hiding RG from Hemidall.

"Did you miss me, Agent Romanov?" came a male voice over the radio along with the noise as RG roared in outrage.

RG went to whack Rogers upside the head (Rogers was staring at Iron Man) and blast Loki off the ground, but Iron Man acted quicker. RG went flying backwards as the force of whatever the weapon Iron Man used hit him in the middle of the chest. RG rammed into the fence around the horse statue in the center of the plaza. Iron Man flew over and hovered above RG, held both hands out, and said, "Make your move, Reindeer Games."

"OH!" Rogers suddenly shouted. "The helmet looks like antlers! I get it now!"

"HEMINDALL!" Loki roared, looking up into the orange and pink stained sky. "SEND DOWN THOR PLEASE!"

"WHOA! There's two of them!" Stark shouted, pointing a hand at Loki.

"That one is with us. The not reindeer," Rogers quickly clarified.

Loki noticed that when Iron Man had blasted RG, he'd lost the specter. Loki thrust his own staff back into the empty storage space between realms and swiftly picked up the Crazy Inducing Staff. He slowly turned it over in his hands, studying it carefully. He could feel the tainted magic. It trickled through his veins and he felt it begin to grip his heart. Loki quickly threw it at Rogers. Rogers caught it, dropping his own shield in surprise.

"Why'd you throw this at me?"

"You're heart is good," Loki said, shuddering.

Rogers frowned, looking down at the staff in his hands.

"Is anyone going to explain what the hell is going on?" Stark demanded, landing in front of RG, still pointing his hands at both Loki and RG. "This was not in the reading."

"I surrender," RG said, putting both hands up and his armor materializing away.

"Good move," Stark snarked. "What about you, GQ?"

Loki quirked an eyebrow. He did not materialize his armor away (mostly because he couldn't).

"I believe the Captain said I was with you," Loki replied. "We will wait for Thor."

RG hissed angrily.

"Why?" Stark demanded.

"Oh, because I think a family reunion was called for," Loki said, glaring down at his double.

His double scowled and glared back. "He's not my family."

"Oh, but he is," Loki snarked.

"Is anyone ever going to tell me what's going on?" Stark demanded with more force. "Why are there two Lokis? Why are we here? What is with that staff gramps got? Mostly, why the hell are there two deranged demigods?"

"I am not deranged."

"Nor am I. And I am a god, not a demigod."

"He is deranged," Loki assured.

Stark let out a frustrated noise.

* * *

_This vacation's useless / These white pills aren't kind / I've given a lot of thought on this thirteen hour drive_

_-Box Car Racer, "There Is" _

* * *

"_California rest in pace, simultaneous release, California show your teeth, she's my priestess, I'm your priest, yeah, yeah, yeah!"_

Clint had been in the car for almost sixteen hours.

It had been a very LONG sixteen hours.

Slogging through LA traffic towards Malibu, Clint was wishing he had stronger pain pills for the massive headache he had been growing since New Mexico and Stark/Jessica had discovered Stark's collection of rock music. While she didn't know the words, she still sung along.

Stark couldn't sing.

He didn't know if Jessica could sing.

Then she'd finally gone to sleep, till she woke up when they hit California. Since they'd hit California, she'd taken to listening to music she actually knew the words to— mostly songs having to do with California. Where she was finding these songs, Clint had no desire to figure out.

"Oh."

"What?" Clint said, turning down the radio.

The lack of music was sweet.

Clint wasn't sure how he was still awake, as he hadn't slept for the first seven hours when Jessica drove (like a maniac) through the desert the night before. The last nine hours he'd been driving while Stark/Jessica slept.

Till she woke up and started singing about California.

"He's started. Crap," Stark/Jessica said, knitting his/her eyebrows together.

It was an odd expression on Stark's face.

"We're still an hour out."

"Yeah. What did he start?"

"Part five," she replied. Or he replied. Clint wasn't even sure anymore. "SHEILD is on their way to get him, so he's started subjugating the European cities with his illusions. Can I drive?"

"We're in a traffic jam."

Stark/Jessica leveled him a look that made him unbuckle his belt.

While sitting in traffic, the pair managed to switch seats. Stark/Jessica wiggled her fingers before the wheel for a moment, inching forward in the traffic before she cranked up the radio, took a hard turn to the left and began to zoom along on the shoulder. Clint held on for dear life while Stark/Jessica went back to belting out the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

"Oh, to actually be Tony Stark," she laughed loudly as "Dani California" ended and another song started.

Somehow, they did not get pulled over by the cops nor did they crash and die a fiery death. Soon, they were zooming through the clear roads of Malibu towards the mansion where Stark spent most of his time before he began building Stark Tower. When they reached the gates, Stark/Jessica hit a button on the wheel of the car and said, "Jarvis, I'm home!"

"Sir, I thought you were on your way to Denmark?" a British accented voice asked over the speaker system.

"Nope. I'm here. Look!"

Stark/Jessica wiggled her fingers again, though this time some sort of green light came out.

"Welcome home, sir," the voice said, sounding warm and welcoming.

And the gates opened.

Jessica drove like a maniac down the drive and pulled around in front of the door. She/he grinned at Clint as she/he put the car into park.

"Ready?"

"No clue," Clint admitted, the voice in the back of his head shouting loudly about something.

Stark/Jessica jumped out of the car and slammed the door. She walked up the front steps and into the house, moving as if she was actually Stark and owned the joint. She was moving more like Stark. If Clint hadn't known she wasn't actually Stark, he'd be none the wiser.

"Ah, feels good to be home. Jarvis, whacha got for me?"

The voice began to go over whatever the hell Stark felt was important to be informed upon reaching home. Clint moved carefully, scouting out the joint, looking for weak spots, strong holds, and other dangers. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Stark/Jessica move over to a control panel and began to hit buttons. More greenish light flowed out of her fingers and she grinned.

"Thanks, Jarvis. You're a doll," Jessica/Stark said. "I'm gonna go to the lab. Get it ready for me, yeah?"

"Yes, sir."

"What did you do?" Clint asked, inching over to her.

"Isolated the Jarvis here," she replied. "Stark will notice, but not till he gets back to the Hellicarrier with Locutus."

Jessica vanished down the stairs into the lower level. Clint moved towards the living room and stood by the window.

It was a major weak point. It was a picture window. Clint hated picture windows when he wanted to protect. When he wanted an easy shot at a target, he loved picture windows.

Clint looked passed the balcony and out to the deep blue sea that spread out before him. The voice in the back of his head that kind of hated him and continued to belittle him for the choices he was making. The voice was most upset about the fact they had broken into Stark's house and were going to allow the portal to be built on the roof.

Roof.

Clint quickly opened the door to the balcony and made his way up to the roof. He found a flat bit that was perfect.

"Sir?"

Clint jumped.

"Sir, Master Stark wishes for you to greet the envoy that will be arriving shortly and show them what you've discovered," the voice said.

"Er, okay," Clint said, wondering where the voice had come from on the roof. "You're kind of creepy."

"I have heard, sir," the voice replied.

Shaking his head, Clint climbed back down.

* * *

_Your faith in me brings me to tears / Even after all these years / And it pains me so much to tell / That you don't know me that well_

_-Nelly Furtado, "I'm Like a Bird"_

* * *

Loki watched the sky. They were still in the square in Copenhagen. Natasha had brought the Quinjet and landed it in the square and loaded RG into the back. He was currently cuffed to his seat with Stark and Rogers watching him while having a discussion with Fury over the radio.

"I don't like it," came Roger's voice.

"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Stark asked.

Loki ignored them, watching the gathering storm clouds. Thunder began to roll and the noise crawled over Loki's skin.

"Loki said we were walking into a trap," Rogers explained.

"What?" Stark squeaked.

RG should have snorted there. Bragged. Made some sort of sarcastic comment. Instead, he remained silent. Loki turned around to see what was going on to find RG watching him with a guarded expression.

"He wanted us to capture him," Rogers argued.

The thunder and lightening began to pick up. RG tensed up, fear creeping into his expression.

"Why?" Stark asked. "I hate playing catch up. Fury, I thought you gave me everything!"

"Sorry, Stark. Figured we needed to keep some information to ourselves," Fury said over the radio.

"Yeah, like the fact we're dealing with Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dee?"

"They are not twins," Rogers pointed out for the hundredth time.

"Then what are they? Clones? They just didn't know it. I think Wired Al wrote a song about that."

Lighting struck closer to the square.

"Loki, you might want to come inside," Rogers called out.

Loki heard him walk from the front of the plane to the open hatch. Stark was also on the move, making more noise due to his metal suit.

"What's wrong?" Rogers asked, appearing at Loki's shoulder.

"I will be fine, Captain," Loki assured, tossing a smile over his shoulder at Rogers.

Stark had stopped in front of RG, smirking at the expression on the latter's face.

"Scared of a little lightening?" Stark taunted.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," RG admitted quietly, eyes scanning the darkening sky.

"What does that mean?" Stark demanded as lighting hit the bronze statue, causing Rogers grab Loki by the arm and haul him into the plane.

Just as Rogers and Loki stumbled backwards and managed not to fall over, Thor arrived in the square. He met the ground with a thud, slowly standing up from the crouch he landed. He was dressed in his armor (sans helmet) and holding his hammer. And he did not looked the least bit pleased.

"Loki!" he bellowed. "What is the meaning of this!"

Loki untangled himself from Rogers and moved to the hatch, meeting Thor before he stormed into the plane. He held up his hands as the storm clouds began to clear.

"There is much to understand, Brother."

Thor faltered for a moment, looking suspicious. "You still believe us to be brothers yet you wish to subjugate Midgard?"

"No!" Rogers shouted, running to stand next to Loki. "He's the good one. He called for you!"

Thor frowned. He looked between Captain America and Loki, his blue eyes darting between the two.

"There's two of them!" Stark shouted from within the jet. "Come see! They're clones!"

"WE ARE NOT CLONES!"

At the sound of the other's voice, Thor narrowed his eyes. He remained staring at Loki.

"What magic is this, brother?"

"That, dear Thor, I do not know," Loki was pained to admit.

Thor continued to study Loki till he nodded curtly. Thor quickly moved passed Loki and Rogers and into the plane. Loki noted RG was frozen, a look of fear upon his face that quickly melted away and was replaced by an arrogant smirk.

"Oh, how nice to see you," he said. "In the area, were you?"

"Where is the Tesseract?" Thor thundered, stomping into the belly of the plane to stand before the other Loki.

Stark took a few steps back, staring at Thor with large eyes. "Loud much?"

"Where is it?" Thor roared, looking at RG, then at Loki.

RG laughed, sounding insane. "I missed you too."

Thor's attention snapped to RG. Thor leaned in closer to RG, who pressed himself into the seat further. "Do I look like I'm in a gaming mood?"

"I don't know, what does that look like?"

Thor dropped his hammer (it made a rather large dent int he floor) and glared at RG. He looked to Loki, who was still standing outside the plane with Rogers.

"I thought you dead," Thor said, eyes moving between the two Lokis. "And now there are two of you."

"There is only one of me," RG snapped. "He is not me."

Thor frowned.

"And I am not him," Loki offered. "Now that you're here, I'm sure I can tell the tale I know many are dying to hear."

RG snorted. "Did you mourn, Thor?"

Thor startled. "We all did. Our father…"

"Your father," RG corrected. "He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?"

Rogers looked at Loki. Loki tensed, balling his hands. A part of his mind logically told him Thor would not care— but a tiny part of him still worried about rejection.

"That does not matter, Loki. We were raised together, we played together, we fought together. Did you forget?"

Thor looked at Loki for a moment till RG stole his attention.

"I remember a shadow," RG hissed. "Living in the shade of your greatness! I remember you tossing me into the abyss!"

"That did not happen!" both Thor and Loki yelled.

"He threw me in," RG insisted.

"You let go! We let go!" Loki shouted. "We were the same at that moment!"

"HE THREW ME IN!"

"I would not do that!" Thor shouted.

"HEY!" Stark shouted, using his Iron Man voice, which was somehow louder than the three god's voices together. Once he had their attention, he flipped his faceplate back up. "While I always love family reunion fights, let's stop with the yelling. GQ and Capsicle, get in the plane. Let's blow this joint."

"Stark, we're in the plane," Loki calmly pointed out.

"Oh, well, raise the plank! Battle the hatches! Or whatever," Stark said, waving a hand around.

Romanov raised the hatch. Thor took the seat next to RG. RG did not look pleased.

"What happened to you, Brother?" he quietly asked, eyeing the one next to him. The one that looked worse for ware— even if he did look better than he had at arrival.

"I am not your brother," RG snarled, moving as far as he could to get away from Thor while chained to the seat.

Thor sighed. He looked at Loki, who lowered himself into a seat across from Thor. Rogers sat down next to Loki.

"And you?" Thor inquired.

"And me what?" Loki asked.

He still had quite a few issues having to do with Thor and everything that had had happened back on Asgard, but he wasn't being eaten alive with anger and rage as the other so he was willing to listen to reason. He quietly met Thor's questioning gaze.

"You see me as your brother, yet he does not."

"I do," Loki admitted. "Though, some of the things RG says are true. I did walk in your shadow."

RG snorted.

"RG?" Stark asked.

"Reindeer Games," Loki supplied.

Stark looked smug. "Much better than simply calling him Asgard as Fury's doing. I like my nicknames. Hey, why don't you got a reindeer hat?"

Stark clanked around, somehow sitting down on Loki's other side.

"I lost it when Thor destroyed the Rainbow Bridge," Loki admitted. "I did not have it on me when I fell into the abyss."

"When he _threw_ us into the abyss," RG muttered.

Loki tightened his mouth, but didn't correct the other. He turned his attention back to Stark.

"It was lost. I did not feel the need to make a new one. I've not worn armor till today. I had no need for it."

"Why did you not make yourself a hat?"

Loki shrugged. "I didn't want you to all me a reindeer."

Stark laughed. "Good point. You're too pretty to be a reindeer."

"We look the same!" RG snapped.

"No, no you really don't," Stark said, looking between the two. "You look like an escaped mental patient in makeup while he looks like a runway model on his way to a costume party."

Thor and Rogers looked between the two. Loki was sure none of that made much sense to either.

RG snarled.

"I do not know what this runway model is, but you do look in better health than…you," Thor finished, appearing confused. He had no clue how to address the two of them.

"Reindeer Games. We're calling the mental patient Reindeer Games," Stark offered.

"I am not a reindeer! I am Loki of Asgard!" RG shouted.

Thor looked at Loki, not wishing to fight with the rage filled being beside him.

"I'm calling myself Loki Laufey-Odinson," Loki quietly said.

RG looked outraged.

Thor appeared slightly upset, but nodded in understanding. Loki was sure Thor would appreciate the fact he stuck with the Odin aspect and didn't drop everything as the other did.

"Well, that's a mouthful," Stark commented. "Fine. We'll call the insane one Loki and we'll just call you…LO!"

"Lo," Loki corrected softly, a pain in his heart flaring.

"You wanna be called Low? Well, if you want," Stark said, shrugging.

"You will call me king," RG insisted.

"King Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Got it," Stark agreed.

If he had been able, Loki was sure RG would have fried Stark on the spot.

* * *

_I'm so scared that I'll never / Get put back together / Keep breaking me in / And this is how we will end_

_-Matchbox 20, "Bent" _


	5. What a Difference a State Makes

**Disclaimer: I do now own any of the Marvel characters. The Avengers was written by Joss Whedon, movie transcript taken from the website Scribd. If you know it, I do now own it.**

* * *

_**What a Difference a State Makes**_

* * *

_There's a fragile tension that's keeping us going / It may not last forever / But, oh well, it's blowing_

_-Depeche Mode, "Fragile Tension" _

* * *

The trip back was made in silence. King Reindeer glared daggers at Stark, Stark smirked and messed up his hair while continuing to think up outrageous nicknames for RG.

Thor was baffled.

Rogers, well, Rogers remained silent. His fingers twitched, as if he wished for something to do with his hands instead of sitting there watching Stark dig a deep hole that would likely cause the latter's death. By the time Loki made his escape to the front of the plane to sit with the silent Romanov, Rogers appeared as if he was going to explode if Stark came up with another nickname for Insane Loki. Loki was sure a few epic shouting matches were in the future for the two men.

"So, that was fun," Romanov commented as she landed the plane.

"Oh, yes. Let's do it again," Loki snarked dryly.

"I thought you were the god of chaos? Shouldn't you be thriving on this?"

"This isn't chaos. This is insanity," Loki commented, unstrapping himself from the seat as Romanov did the final button flipping or whatever was required to shut the plane off.

Romanov snorted. "What are we going to do with…RG?"

"Put him in a cage," Loki muttered, slowly getting to his feet. "Director Fury had me…suggest a few upgrades for the glass cage SHEILD made for Doctor Banner."

Romanov shifted minutely. Then flipped a few more switches.

"He will be unable to magic himself out," Loki assured her. "That, though, is where it ends."

"What ends?"

"The good news."

* * *

_'Til all my sleeves are stained red / From all the truth I've said / Come by it honestly I swear_

_-Onerepublic, "Secrets"_

* * *

Loki's skin was crawling. It felt like a million bugs were scuttling in every which way as he stood in the lab with Banner upon returning to the Hellicarrier. The sound of many pairs of marching feet got Loki's attention and he looked up just in time to see the Deranged Reindeer parade passed— looking as his name claimed: deranged.

"Should I be worried?" Banner asked, eyeing RG as he smirked and met Banner's gaze. Banner removed his glasses and rubbed his forehead. He looked up again as RG turned his attention forward and continued onwards to his glass cage.

"Likely," Loki admitted, absently rubbing his bare arms. He had shed his amor as soon as possible, as it felt foreign without the magic.

Even on Other Earth, the magic had remained.

Loki was mystified as to where the magic had gone.

After fighting with the armor to remove it, Loki was dressed once again in the only clothes he had on him: a grey v-neck t-shirt and dark jeans.

"Is it story time now, James Dean?" Stark asked, leaning on the doorframe to the lab and eyeing Loki. He was dressed in a dark, expensive looking suit. Agent Hill stood behind him, eye balling Stark as if she didn't want to let him roam freely.

"Yes, I believe you will all hear the whole tale in the near future," Loki replied, straightening up. He pulled his leather jacket off the back of the chair and shrugged it on. Stark shook his head, looking as if he wanted to make a sarcastic comment on Loki's jacket. Loki pressed on. "I will tell it after Director threatens RG and tells him he's now the ant and Nicholas Fury is the boot."

Banner snorted.

"I feel like I missed all the fun," Stark muttered, looking angry.

"We can watch on the monitors in the briefing room," Romanov said, popping up out of nowhere. She was still dressed in her black catsuit. "I believe that's a much better spot for Loki to tell us his tale of woe."

She turned on her heel and brushed passed Hill. Stark motioned for Banner and Loki to exit before him. Loki gently turned Banner away from the scepter and the pair exited the lab.

Captain America and Thor were both waiting in the briefing room on the bridge as they entered. Thor was pacing while Captain America was seated at the table— still wearing his superhero suit. Romanov set the monitors in the room to broadcast RG in his glass cage.

"Is there…a screen in the table?" Rogers asked, staring at the flat, shiny surface.

"Uh, yeah," Stark muttered, falling into a chair ungracefully. He leaned up and stared at the image in the table. "Oh, putting the homicidal maniac in a glass cage always works out for the best."

Banner frowned as he took the seat next to Stark. Loki remained standing watching Thor as the larger man paced the room. He had shed some of his armor, but remained tense. Agent Hill entered and moved to some of the computer monitors that did not reside within the table, tapping the screens and frowning.

"Thirty-thousand feet, straight down," Fury was saying to RG, "in a steel trap. You get how that works?"

Loki leaned over Roger's shoulder to see the opened hatched close under RG, who looked unbothered by the thought he could drop to his death in the glass box.

"Ant."

Fury pointed RG.

"Boot."

Fury pointed at the big red button.

Stark quirked an eyebrow, somehow knowing he was still missing the joke. He pouted.

RG smirked. "It's an impressive cage. Not originally built for me, but…you've made some key changes."

RG raised a hand and pressed it to the glass.

"I'm quite clever," he praised flatly. "How I dislike myself at the moment. I am much too clever for my own god. But, did I think of this?"

RG smirked and his hand turned blue, ice forming on the glass. Thor let out a noise. Loki glanced up to find Thor looking a combination of angry, stressed and sad. The blond man looked up and met Loki's eyes.

Loki shrugged and went back to watching.

RG frowned, looking at his formerly blue hand, then at the lack of cracks in the glass.

"It was built for someone a lot stronger than you. I hear he smashed you into the ground. Made a nice Loki shaped crater."

RG glared at Fury.

"Don't fool yourself thinking you know how this ends just because of _him_," RG spat. "I know what he knows."

"And I know what you know," Fury offered.

"Oh, but do you, Director. Do you?" RG asked sweetly while looking demented.

"I've got you on my side," Fury whispered.

Without waiting for RG to answer, Fury spun around and exited the room. RG narrowed his eyes, then backed up a few paces till he was in the center of the cage. He planted his feet hips distance apart and clasped his hands behind his back and stood, staring straight ahead.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner muttered. He shifted uneasily in his seat before getting to his feet.

"What's he going to do?" Romanov asked, breaking the silence in the briefing room.

"Something insane," Loki muttered.

"I want my story," Stark demanded loudly, leaning back in his chair. "I wanna know why we've got two Gods of Mischief. And while I'm totally thankful one is sane, I'd like to get rid of the whack job one and pry the cube out of his possession."

"RG's gonna play this out for as long as he can," Rogers realized, sitting up straighter and looking at the two gods in the room. "No matter what we know about him, what we think we know, his specialty if chaos, right?"

Rogers looked up at Loki over his shoulder.

"I think before we get to that, Captain Rogers, we will be hearing Lo's story," Thor said.

Everyone stared at Loki.

"Do we need to wait for Director Fury?" Rogers asked, looking at everyone in the room.

"He knows most of it, but we might as well wait for all the players," Loki said.

It took Fury about three minutes to reach the briefing room, with Coulson trailing behind him. He nodded at Loki, sitting back in his chair.

"With the exception of Thor, Director Fury and Agent Coulson, are you aware of the events of New Mexico a year ago?" Loki asked, looking at each person around the table.

Hill, Rogers, Stark, and Romanov all nodded. Banner shook his head. Loki gave a quick overview of the events leading to his fall for Banner, then told the tale of falling to Other Earth.

"So, you fell off a bridge into nothingness?" Banner asked, looking concerned.

"Yes. And, as I might have stated before, that is where RG and my story splits. I do not know where RG fell or what occurred to him."

"I can't believe we're all actors," Stark muttered, still looking shocked. "Least I was still rich and famous."

Everyone glared at Stark, who suddenly started smiling.

"So, about these movies we all made," Stark started. "I got three and everyone else only got one?"

"Except Agent Romanov and Agent Barton," Loki admitted. "They do not have their own films."

Romanov looked insulted while Star smugly smiled. He opened his mouth to say something, but Rogers spoke over him.

"Wait, the movies didn't tell you where you went? You seem to know a lot about each of us, but not much about what happened to you when you fell into the void."

"The movies did not show exactly what occurred to…Loki. They simply showed he'd aligned with The Other and Thanos and was given the Chitauri in order to rule over Midgard," Loki explained.

"And the Chitauri are?" Stark asked. "Besides sounding ugly."

"A warrior alien race," Thor reminded him, staring at Stark as if he were an idiot. "Ruthless, strong and mindless outside of battle."

"But, we win, right? What's the big deal? I mean, yeah, King Rudolph knows he's going to loose, but he seems to be following his original plan. He's in a cage."

"Are you an idiot?" Rogers asked, jerking in his seat to look at Stark.

"No. Genius."

"He got out of the cage last time," Banner quietly said, but was overpowered by Rogers shouting, "Things aren't going to play out like a movie. This is real life, Stark!"

"We won last time. Why?" Romanov asked, cutting off Stark's comeback.

"You worked together," Loki replied, wearily eyeing the rag-tag group.

Rogers and Stark looked like they were at one another's throat, Thor was disappointed, Banner rubbed the bridge of his nose and Fury sighed deeply. Romanov was as she usually was: set to neutral. Coulson was eyeing Rogers and Stark likely debating on punching Stark in the nose, while Hill's eyes were still glued to the monitor she'd been at since entering the room.

Yeah, this group was going to win a battle.

"After a tragic death of someone who'd touched each of you during RG's escape you came together, put your differences aside and worked together to save the day," Loki explained, wearingly watching Rogers seethe while Stark pointedly ignored the blond solider.

"Hear that? Team work solves the problem," Fury said. "We know Reindeer's got the cube and likely still planning to bring his army down. And his eyes are blue, so he might not be a hostile as we think. His eyes are really blue."

Fury looked upset by this, glaring at Loki as if it were his fault the villain of the moment might not be as evil as they all wished.

"The world is not black and white, it's in shades of grey," Loki blandly stated.

"Are you telling me the insane one might _not_ be a looney-toon?" Stark asked, slapping the table. "Seriously?"

"He's been whammied. Yeah," Fury said, crossing his arms across his chest. "If you want, we can knock him upside the head a few times and see what happens."

"Why haven't we hit him over the head yet?" Rogers asked.

"It won't be that easy to break it on him," Loki quietly said. "He's a mortal. It will take a great force to render him unconscious. Sometimes great emotional turmoil can break him free, but it does not last."

"How do you know?" Thor asked, looking curious.

"The film. In it, you took Loki out of the plane and crash landed somewhere. You hit him with the hammer and banged him against rocks. He hit his head a few times, but the spell didn't break. He only broke free during moments of emotional upheaval. It did not last, though."

The room was silent.

"The control rendered over RG is different from the control he's put on your people. Also, RG is angry and…vengeful. So, it is easy for the spell to take hold again."

"When did it break?" Romanov asked. "For good?"

"After the Hulk smashed him into Stark's floor," Loki quietly said, giving Banner soft smile. "That likely rendered him unconscious long enough to re-callibrate his mind."

Banner cringed and rubbed his head, turning away from Loki and walking to the other side of the room.

"Hulk threw him around like a rag doll," Fury offered. "Now, we don't know where the cube is located. Banner, you anywhere with that?"

"Getting closer. Everything is triangulated and lined up. But, they seemed to know what we'd doing, so we're getting reading from all the… all the cities having strange fake weather."

Thor looked confused. No one felt compelled to explain weather patterns to Thor, so they continued to discuss what the other Loki might be up to, what he did last time and what they might to do get the cube back. The conversation went in circles till it came back to RG's eminent break out.

"So, you are sure Barton will be here to break him out?"

Loki nodded, turning to Romanov. "I'm sure that Jessica and Barton will come to get him. Barton knows this ship well and Jessica knows how we will all react. "

Romanov didn't like the sound of this in the least. Her eyes hardened and her mouth grew a tiny bit tighter.

"What do you think he planned is this time around? Just a guess," Stark prodded.

Loki glanced up at the monitor, where RG was smirking into the camera aimed at him. He was still standing in the dead center of the cage with his hands behind his back, but his smirk was growing by leaps and bounds.

"Likely the same thing he was going for before," Loki admitted. "He will know we know this, so he will see it as a challenge to make it happen."

Banner shifted and frowned. He stood uncomfortably on the other side of the room. Stark got up out of his chair and approached Banner. Stark clapped him on the shoulder.

"Love your work on gamma radiation."

Banner looked utterly baffled. "Er, uh, thanks."

"Your work is seriously brilliant. Seriously. Oh, and I love how you turn into a huge, green rage monster. Totally cool."

Banner turned a bit green as he stared at Stark.

"He likes you," Loki offered, grinning.

Banner continued to look baffled, confused and a little green. Stark got distracted by something and wandered off.

Finally.

"Do you believe the other Loki beyond reason?" Thor softly asked.

Loki knew what answer Thor was looking for and found himself unable to give it to him.

"Well, he hasn't killed anyone yet," Romanov offered. "So maybe redemption is in his cards."

Thor said nothing, but looked like someone had just killed his puppy. Loki quickly looked away.

"If they're not going to use iridium, what are they going to use?" Banner asked, clearing his throat. He removed his glasses and scratched his temple. "I mean, they use it for stabilizing the portal. What else could they use?"

"What do you mean?" Rogers asked, leaning forward.

"Means they need something so the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at the SHEILD compound," Stark said. "Also, it'd mean he'd be able to get that portal as big as he wanted. And for as long as he wanted."

Stark stopped fiddling with the computer monitor near Agent Hill and wandered further away from the group, though he didn't shut up. He waved his hands around as he continued to talk a hundred miles an hour.

"So, what would he use?" He whirled around to face the group. "Wait, if we know we're going to be shot out of the air, why are we still in the air? Wouldn't we go land on something solid like, oh, I don't know, some land? That man is playing GALAGA!"

He pointed at some random agent on the bridge. Rogers sighed, Fury rolled his eye, Agent Hill scowled, while Banner pinched his nose. Thor looked puzzled and peered at Coulson— who had raised an eyebrow.

"What is this Galaga?" he asked, looking to Coulson.

"I'll explain it later," Coulson assured.

"Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did," Stark called loudly, pointing at the man playing a video game. Stark suddenly covered his left eye and stared at one of the flat screen monitors. He moved it to the left and right, turning his head as well. "How does Fury do this?"

"He turns," Hill supplied, appearing at his side and moving the monitor away from him.

"STARK!" Fury shouted.

Stark frowned, but turned and said, "Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The iridium was the only thing GQ knew he'd have trouble getting. Actually, what other things did he need?"

"They never said. I would not dare guess," Loki admitted.

"How did you get here again?" Stark asked.

Loki smirked. He'd not detailed how he'd managed to arrive when he'd told the story, knowing only Stark would truly care.

"I built an arc reactor."

Stark startled and looked down at his chest, even though his chest piece wasn't showing under his dress shirt.

"You built an arch reactor?" Stark asked, sounding a combination of worried and amazed. "How?"

"I used the plans they had for the Iron Man movies," Loki explained. "I improvised after that, as the plans were movie props, thus were not meant for real operation."

"Loki is very clever," Thor offered.

"That means…that if one could figure it out…he'd know what power source he needed and…he would know he had the ability to build an arch reactor because your friend would have told him," Stark realized, his tanned face paling. "He could build himself something that could put a high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill demanded.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers," Stark rattled off, looking rattled. "If I can do it, no doubt Loki could. Why does he even need a crew of scientists?"

"He's not an idiot. He had to delegate," Loki reminded Stark. "I did not build the reactor overnight. He will know this."

"So, I am amazing," Stark boasted, a smug smile appearing on his paled face.

"Of course, Mr Stark," Loki allowed with a nod of his head.

Stark pointed a finger at Loki and said, "Call me Tony. Mr Stark was my father. Not me."

"So, does, er, the other Loki need a particular kind of power source?" Rogers asked, tensing up at the mention of Starks' father. "I mean, he must have figured out what to use other than iridium, and so he'd figure out that he'd need another power source since he will not likely use what he used in the, uh, the film."

Banner rubbed between his eyes, then shoved his glasses back on his face. "He got the heat on the cube up to a hundred and twenty-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier. Lo didn't do that when he broke through. How did you do that? I bet Reindeer will want to know how you did it and ask your friend. Clearly, using the arch reactor was key to avoiding the heat up."

Banner peered at Loki.

"I believe RG…forced his way through instead of allowing the Tesseract to drag him."

"So, you asked permission?" Stark asked, looking curious.

"In a sense," Loki said.

"In what sense," Stark challenged.

"In the sense, I connected to the power it was all ready emitting, fed it some more along with magic and let it drag me to where it was. I did not speak to it, I did not commune with it, and it did not speak back, but it was greedy for the power I was offering."

"What did you power your arch reactor with?"

"Magic."

"Not any Earth element?"

"No. I was unable to get anything powerful enough to really power it. I could only use what I had available to me."

"So you powered it with magic," Stark snorted. "Sure. Whatever."

"Whatever Lo did worked," Banner said. "The collapse only happened because Reindeer showed up in the manner he did. Whatever Lo did was, while not long lasting, it was a lot less destructive."

"He would need to figure out how to power an arch reactor with magic and get rid of whatever his tainting his magic," Loki said. "He's still tainted. And I doubt he has figured out how to build an arch reactor in that cage or in the time since he's been here. I'm clear headed and it took me several weeks."

"So, unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilizes the quantum tunneling effect with science, they're gonna need some sort of stabilizing agent," Stark concluded.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet," Banner offered, turning his attention to Stark.

"Finally, someone who speaks English!" Stark cried, throwing his arms wide open and beaming at Banner.

"That was English?" Rogers asked.

"Science, Rogers. That was science," Romanov snickered.

Stark and Banner began to further speak in terms even Loki was having issues following.

"Brother, I must ask, what happened? Really," Thor asked quietly, turning Loki to face him. "Why are there really two of you?"

"I do not know, Brother."

"You must have a theory," Thor said, narrowing his eyes.

Loki glanced back at his insane counterpart on the table monitors and sighed.

"A million," Loki quietly said. "Each one as unlikely as the next. We both belong here. I do not understand. One of us should not belong, and yet we both do."

"Could you have been ripped apart?"

Thor and Loki startled, looking down at the small, redheaded woman who was now standing next to them with her arms folded across her chest.

"What do you mean?" Thor inquired.

"Well, when he fell into this void, he said he felt pain and then nothing. Could different aspects of his personality and his very being been ripped apart?" Romanov suggested. She made a ripping motion with her hands— like tearing a sheet of paper into two. "From what I've seen of the two, they are different sides of the same coin. One of them is all anger and rage and the other is not. You said yourself you had no anger or rage, simply fell into a depression. What if RG embodies all that anger and rage you once had? As, really, where did it go?"

Loki frowned.

* * *

_You think it's fictional, mystical / Maybe, spiritual / Hero who appears to you / To clear your view when you're too crazy_

_-Gorillaz, "Clint Eastwood" _

* * *

Clint stared around the lab while Stark/Jessica danced around the classic cars.

"This is just like the movies!" the deep voice of Tony Stark shirked very uncharacteristically.

Clint opened up a long drawer and smiled down at what he found within.

"Sir, are you alright?" came the voice of the AI.

"Oh, just peachy, Jarvis," Stark/Jessica chirped.

She snapped her head up, as if she was listening to something. Clint looked around, but didn't hear anyone.

"Jarvis, can you get a plane ready. I gotta fly to the East Coast. I've got a plane that can get there in a few hours, right?"

"Your suit can get you there in less than an hour," Jarvis pointed out.

"Yeah, but I can't take Clint with me if I go that fast," Stark/Jessica reminded the AI.

"I was not aware you wished to bring him along."

"Well, I do. Jarv— pilot, jet, and be ready to go in an hour. Gotta go get my friend," Stark/Jessica said. "I need to bring a suit. Hmmm…"

"The Mark III, IV and V are available."

"Cool. Old school," Stark/Jessica said.

"Your newest suits are in New York at the tower, sir. If you've forgotten."

"Of course I didn't forget. I just forgot what was here. Problem living in too many place at once," Stark/Jessica laughed. "Hmmm…what is the one that goes into a suitcase?"

"The Mark V. I'll get it ready," Jarvis replied.

Across the lab, one of the suits on display suddenly folded itself into a metal suitcase. Stark/Jessica skidded across the lab and grabbed it up.

"Thanks, Jarvis! Come on, Barton. Grab what you want from that drawer that's making you drool and let's go bust Locutus out of jail!"

* * *

_Under haunted skies I see you / Where love is lost your ghost is found / I braved a hundred storms to leave you_

_-Adele, "Turning Tables" _

* * *

Loki sat staring at a monitor in the lab. He was watching himself while Stark (who had shed the suit in favor of a beat up t-shirt and jeans) and Banner talked science at one another. Loki honestly had no idea what they were up to, but he knew they'd figure out whatever they were trying to figure out at some point. Loki was trying to figure himself out, trying to figure out if Romanov's suggestion— that he'd been torn in two within the void— was legitimate.

He did not want it to be legitimate, as it meant that he'd carry that rage and anger within him again.

The madness.

Loki still recalled the madness that had gripped him before the fall, remembered it clearly. It was hard for him to drag it up to the surface, as if he was honest while he recollected feeling it, the feeling itself wasn't within him any longer.

It was gone.

He remembered but was unable to feel.

When was the last time he'd felt mad or angry as he once had? When had he felt the intensity of emotions that had filled him before his fall into the void?

He could easily feel depressed, calm, happy, uneasy and a variety of other things, but he could not feel the rage, madness and anger he was so familiar with before he trip into the void.

Gripping the table, he felt the air leave his lungs.

"OW!"

Loki snapped his head up as Rogers rushed into the lab and shouted, "Are you nuts?"

"You really got a lid on it, don't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?" Stark asked Banner, looking curious. "Yoga. Tantric yoga? That one you do in a hot room and sweat to death?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Roger demanded.

Loki looked back at the monitor, still gripping the edge of the table, not hearing the metal scrunching under his finger tips. Dimly, he realized he wasn't breathing. He couldn't recall how to do it.

"Uh, Loki?" Banner asked.

Loki flicked his eyes towards Banner and briefly caught the concerned frown etched upon his face.

"Funny things are," Stark said, staring at Rogers as he seethed.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense— uh, doctor?"

"What's wrong, Loki?" Banner asked, slowly approaching the god.

Loki still wasn't breathing, not that he really needed air. Air was overrated. Gods didn't need air.

Okay, they did.

"Earth to GQ?" Stark asked. "You still in that pretty, little head?"

Stark sounded quite far away.

A warm hand grasped his shoulder. It jerked Loki out of the daze he'd found himself within. Air rushed into his lungs and he let go of the table, noting the finger impressions in the cool metal surface. He slowly looked upwards towards the arm connected to the hand and into the worried eyes of Captain America.

"It makes sense," Loki faintly heard himself admit. "No wonder I became depressed. I simply thought it was because I was so different..."

He looked away, staring at himself in the monitor.

It was him.

They were not different. They were the same, only ripped apart into two different entities.

His madness, insanity, the villain, the true monster within was standing in a glass cage.

Everything else was sitting in a lab surrounded by the Earth's heros.

"Uh, is it possible he can go more pale?"

"I think something is wrong."

"Great observation, Captain Obvious."

"Stark."

"Will you two shut up?"

Banner's face appeared before Loki, the monitor moving so Loki could no longer stare at his evil reflection.

"You're not a monster," Banner reminded Loki. "I don't know what is going on in that head, but I know it's not filled with cats. He's got cats for brains."

Banner jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

"You can smell the crazy on him," Loki faintly said, looking into Banner's warm, brown eyes.

The hand on Loki's shoulder tightened.

"Do you remember what you told me when you came to get me?"

"You are contained," Loki blankly said, eyes darting to the monitor Banner had moved out of his sightline.

And in that instant Banner understood.

"My monster is not," Loki finished.

He lifted his hand, allowing it to turn blue. He heard both Rogers and Stark gasp, one in shock and one in interest. Even though the coldness, the hand on his shoulder remained, seeping warmth into Loki's freezing cold skin between the layers of t-shirt and leather.

It almost burned.

"This isn't the monster as I once thought, Doctor Banner. My monster is in the glass cage. My monster is the homicidal maniac who wants to rule the world."

Loki roughly stood up, knocking the stool over and causing Rogers to stumble backwards. Without a backwards look, he fled the room.

* * *

_You are more than the choices you've made / You are more than the sum of your past mistakes / You are more than the problems you create_

_-Tenth Avenue North, "You Are More" _

* * *

"What are you doing?"

Loki turned around to find Fury behind him. Loki pressed a hand to the door leading to the cage where his other half lived and said nothing.

"Romanov told me her theory. That you two are actually one guy, but split like Jekyll and Hyde, only you each got your own body."

"Yes, Director."

"Does he know that?"

"No. He would be unable to draw that conclusion," Loki lied.

"Oh, I think he might have. I doubt he wants you back, though," Fury went on, moving to stand next to Loki. He placed a hand on Loki's shoulder, forcefully turning Loki away from the door. "And you don't want him back either."

Loki stared hard at the ground, shrugging the hand off his shoulder. He took a few steps away from Fury, turning his back to the man.

"You told me throughout the movie, Thor believed in his brother— believed there was still good within him."

Fury let his words sink in.

"You are that brother he wanted back, aren't you? You're the version Thor remembered fondly."

"But, I am also the one who would like to stomp on you, rule over your world and believes…"

"What does the man in that room believe, though?" Fury challenged.

Loki turned to face Fury, knitting his eyebrows together.

"He lacks conviction. Remember?"

"But, in the movie, he was both of us," Loki reminded the director. "The character in the movie wasn't torn apart, ripped into two within the void."

"You don't know that for sure. Maybe you just didn't show up on time?"

Loki studied the man before him, taking in his set expression. He did not see the Loki before him as a threat.

"You can't be the villain, Loki Laufey-Odinson. Your last name proves it," Fury stated flatly, crossing his arms across his chest. He glanced at the closed door. "I wouldn't talk to that guy in there."

"I can't be angry."

"You can be angry. You can be bitter. I heard you when you were talking to Banner. The radio Hill gave you was an open com link. I heard everything you told him. You showed him something and asked him a question. What did you show him?"

"The monster within."

Loki didn't explain or elaborate. He knew there were cameras all over the ship and Fury had likely seen him turn blue in the lab earlier.

Fury looked away for a moment, smiling sardonically and shook his head.

"Racism," Fury snorted.

Loki tensed, remembering Jess telling him about racism.

"Are you familiar with it?"

Loki nodded.

"That— let me guess, that's your actual race, the blue skin?"

Loki nodded. "I'm Jotun, also known as a Frost Giant."

"Thor mentioned you were adopted," Fury offered, uncrossing his arms. He pointed a finger at Loki and continued, "That blue skin is your race. And it's got nothing to do with who you are."

Loki remained silent.

"Racism is ugly," Fury flatly said, folding his arms again. "It's not as bad as it was in this country, but it's still there under the surface. And it's ugly. For a long time, just because someone had a different skin color, they were thought not to be human, thought they were something…lower. Now, tell me, do you see me any different than Stark?"

"Based on your skin?"

Fury nodded.

"No. You are both humans, mortals. Frost Giants are not the same species as Asgardians."

"And you're not the same as me," Fury pointed out. "Do you see me as a monster? A lower form of life?"

"No. I personally do not," Loki admitted. "The man in the cage thinks you are below him."

"I don't care about him. I care what you're thinking. You don't think Doctor Banner is a monster. He turns green. What makes him different?"

"He is a good man. He…he chooses…he helps people and contains the Hulk."

"We both know the Hulk isn't exactly the mindless rage monster everyone else thinks he is," Fury quietly reminded Loki. "The Hulk isn't stupid, just angry."

"That is very true," Loki said quietly. "Banner is not a monster."

"Why? You need to answer that."

"His choices."

"Monsters are born out of choices."

Loki did not reply. He stared at the ground hard a moment before looking back at Fury.

"What choice did you make?"

"When? I made many."

"After you woke up in another world after your fall," Fury clarified. "If I remember, you made the choice to let go of the anger and rage. You made a choice to wallow in misery."

Fury gazed at the door to the cage room before looking back at Loki.

"The Loki behind that door is being controlled by another force, but what if he had made the choice to wallow in his misery? Would he be trying to take over the world?"

Loki did not reply, but knew Fury had a point. Loki turned to the closed door and stared at it.

"Why are you doing this?"

"You're an asset," Fury flatly stated. "While I know you know we are scared senseless by Reindeer and what your mere existence means for our planet, you are an asset against those who might harm us."

"And yet I am also a danger."

"So is Banner. The Hulk has the same potential to be a danger as you do."

Loki did not reply, but turned to look at Fury.

"So, if the guy in the cage had chosen to wallow in misery, would we be standing here right now?"

"No."

"Exactly. Without his anger and vindictive rage, he'd not give two shakes about us here on Earth. He'd be off busy being depressed and feeling sorry for himself."

Loki thought about that for a moment and nodded.

"I have no desire to rule the Earth. Or anything for that matter."

A spark suddenly appeared in Fury's eye.

"Exactly. So, what's he doing here?"

Loki frowned.

"If you two are the same guy and he's just the angry side, then what the hell is he doing?"

Loki straightened up, trying to parse out what Fury was aiming at.

"Neither of you has any desire to rule."

"He's being controlled, Director."

"Neither of you has any desire to rule," Fury repeated, his eye burning with intensity.

"He lacks conviction. He has no desire to rule the world," Loki whispered.

RG's actions still spoke to this truth: he lacked conviction. Just as the film version had lacked conviction.

He was playacting, going through the motions.

"You said yourself: Loki gave up after being Hulk smashed. Now, why the hell did he just lie there? While, yeah, having the crap knocked out of you can even put you down for the count, from what you told me, Hulk knocked the crap out of Thor more than once and Thor got back up."

"Thor is much stronger—"

"You are missing the point. You heal fast. Thor might get right back up due to the fact he's freaking Thor, but you aren't exactly weak."

"I could have escaped," Loki realized.

It was in his nature to escape, to save his own skin. Instead, he had sat in the crater and pretty much waited till he was surrounded. And even then, he still could have gotten away.

"Yeah. But, you didn't and snarked back at Stark," Fury said. "So, what was Loki's real goal in that movie?"

Loki and Fury stared at one another.

"What does the guy in the cage want, Loki? Why is he here of all places? Why subjugate Earth?"

Loki straighten up to his full height, realization hitting him over the head.

"He wants to go home," Loki whispered.

"And what is there? This big bad that is controlling your other half, what does he really want? Yeah, he could want the Tesseract, but why the invasion of Earth? Why use you? You had the cube, he's got it right now. Why not hand it over? Why the invasion?"

Loki stared in horror at Fury.

"I have to go deal with Rogers and Stark. Rogers found out I'm making weapons and Stark has been poking around in my computer system since he got here. Romanov is going to go talk to your evil twin. I want you and Thor to figure out what the hell the guy in charge wants from Asgard."

Fury turned on his heel and left.

* * *

_There's a hole in my conscience / There's a hole in my country / Like a nose that keeps running_

_-Phantomgram, "You Are The Ocean" _

* * *

They landed at a private airport in the middle of nowhere. Clint studied his surroundings as he got off the jet.

"Where the hell are we?"

"Somewhere," Stark/Jessica replied, throwing the red and gold suitcase down on the ground and kicking it.

By the time Clint looked up, she was no longer standing there. Iron Man was next to him.

"Ready?" asked the voice of Iron Man.

"Sure. What's the plan?"

"We break onto the Hellicarrier. I'm going to explode the suit. Blow a nice big hole. I'm assuming they are in the water and not the air. If they are in the air, I'll go for an engine. We gotta make a mess to set the Hulk off. Data will have told them the plan, which they will expect to change. We're keeping it pretty much the same, only with a few change ups."

Clint nodded. "What am I going to do while you're blowing up the ship?"

"You're going to go in and disable the bridge. I'll let Locutus out and then we'll split."

"Where am I to meet you?"

"You're staying behind," Iron Man informed him.

Before Clint could reply. He was picked up and carried off into the air. Clint wasn't too crazy about being carried under his arms, legs dangling above the ground— especially when they got out over the water.

It felt like it took hours.

By the time the Hellicarrier came into sight, Clint was frozen. The Hellicarrier was also in the air, not in the water. Clint heard the rocket boosters of the Iron Man suit kick off and they rose up to where the carrier hovered. In a covered, protected spot the cameras didn't reach, Jessica/Stark landed and let Clint go.

Clint fell to the ground, his limbs stiff and frozen.

Jessica/Stark did not comment. She remained silent as Clint attempted to warm himself up. He rubbed his arms, legs and chest till he slowly got feeling back. His head snapped up at the sound of the Iron Man suit opening up. Jessica/Stark stepped out.

"Well, guess we're going to blow an engine. Got the exploding arrow?"

"I can't feel my fingers."

Clint flexed his fingers.

"Sorry. I need you to kill that engine then get to the bridge. I'm going to get Locutus."

She cocked her head to the side. Without waiting for him to confirm his role in the whole plan, she vanished from sight. Clint blinked a few times, wondering where on Earth she'd gone.

He felt something nudge his mind and his fingers warmed suddenly. Flexing them, along with his arms and legs, he felt better. He stood up, pulled out the collapsable bow he'd found in the drawer in Stark's lab. Also in that lovely drawer were several exploding arrows as well as other sorts of wired arrows along with a case to carry the arrows. Snapping the bow together, Clint stalked along the deck till he found what he wanted and got to work.

* * *

_I hit rewind most every time / That tape runs through / Your memory is haunting me and cuts to the bone_

_-Duke Special, "Ballad of a Broken Man" _

* * *

The whole ship rocked.

Violently.

"What is going on?" Banner asked, raising his head up from the tabletop where he'd fallen asleep.

Loki was on the ground, having fallen off the stool he'd fallen asleep on at some point. Stark lay on the ground, blinking dumbly.

"I just had a moment of total lack of grace, right? The boat isn't exploding. Tell me it didn't blow up," Stark said, making no move to right himself.

Thor ran into the lab, looking around wildly.

"Loki, what is this?" he demanded.

"I didn't do it," Loki automatically said, pushing himself onto his knees.

The ship rocked again.

Loki crashed back to the ground. Stark yelped, rolling to his side as one of the steel lab tables fell over. Thor caught it before it crushed Stark.

"I think something exploded," Banner dumbly stated, rubbing his eyes. He struggled to get to his feet, having been knocked off his stool with the last explosion. "I need coffee before I deal with things going boom."

"LOKI!" Thor roared, throwing the table across the room.

"THOR!" Loki roared back.

This got Thor's attention.

"They are here for him!" Loki shouted, getting to his feet finally.

Thor looked wild eyed, but turned and high tailed it out of the lab.

"Are you alright, Tony?" Banner asked, helping the other man to his feet.

"I need my suit," was all Stark said.

"Doctor!" Romanov rushed into the room. "We might want to remove you from the situation!"

"What _is_ going on?" Stark demanded.

"They've blown out an engine and there is a huge hole in the side of the ship. Our computer systems are compromised as well," Romanov reported flatly as Rogers ran into the room. His hair was pointing in all directions and he was still trying to pull a shield t-shirt over his head.

Loki tried not to stare.

He might have failed.

"Going to hell in a hand basket in other words," Stark grumbled, eyeing Rogers as he struggled to get his shirt on properly.

"I thought they wouldn't repeat!" Rogers cried, head suddenly popping through the right hole.

"Oh, what fun is that?" Loki muttered, burying his face in this hands.

"That energy signature…" Stark trailed off, staring at a computer that hadn't fallen over and was still working somehow.

"Would be yours."

Everyone in the room froze at the sound of Stark's voice coming from across the lab. Loki lifted his face out of his hands and found Stark standing next to the scepter hooked up to various monitors on the other end of the lab. The table it was on had not been rocked by the explosions. The Stark by the table, studied the spear with his hands held behind his back for a moment before looking up, smirk on his face.

"Or should I say ours."

"That is not me. I am right here!" Stark shouted, pointing at himself. "How am I over there when I am clearly right here!"

Loki straightened up, Romanov grabbed her gun and pointed at the Stark by the spear. Rogers looked around, but failed to find his shield in the lab. He silently berated himself for leaving it behind.

"Well, I'll just take this and be out of your way," the other Stark said, hands appearing from behind his back.

"MOVE!" Romanov shouted, causing everyone standing to this the deck.

Romanov shot at the impostor as he reached for the spear.

The bullet didn't hit, it bounced off a green tinted shield.

"Oh, cool! I've got a shield! Go me!"

"Jessica?" Loki breathed, standing up slowly. Stark and Banner poked their heads up from behind the fallen lab table.

"And BINGO was his name-o!" she sung out, tapping the tip of her nose. Well, Stark's nose.

"How?" Loki asked.

"Magic, duh. And you call yourself a wizard," Jess snapped. "But, here's the dillio. We're gonna do this just like we did last time only in a different local. Due to my appearance, I bet you can figure it out. Now, if you don't— well, that won't be any fun now will it?"

Jess laughed.

"Okay, I do not laugh like that," Stark grumped.

"Stop him!" Romanov shouted, shooting off a few more rounds.

Jess grabbed the spear, bullets bouncing off the shield, and the whole room exploded.

* * *

_What's so different this time that you can't ignore / You say it is so much more than just my last mistake / And we should spend some time apart for both our sakes_

_-Snow Patrol, "Make The Go On Forever" _


	6. Find Yourself Here

**Disclaimer: I do now own any of the Marvel characters. The Avengers was written by Joss Whedon, movie transcript taken from the website Scribd. If you know it, I do now own it.**

* * *

**_Fine Yourself Here_**

* * *

_When I woke I was alive in somebody's room / I felt life and love and hope infested my bones / Wake up you've got a lot of things to do_

_-Margot & the Nuclear So and So, "Quiet as a Mouse" _

* * *

Loki came to in stages.

The first stage he only felt pain and went back into the dark willingly.

The second stage he heard Romanov pleading, things exploding and someone roaring

The third stage he could hear several people talking over one another— all sounding worried. Then someone punched something and Loki passed out.

The fourth stage he heard something beeping and metal clinking together. He felt rather floaty, so he floated away.

The fifth and final stage, found him in a sterile smelling room.

"Hey."

Loki blinked a few times to clear his eyes, then turned his head with some difficulty to find Clint Barton across from him, strapped to a bed.

"So, you missed everything," Clint went on once he knew Loki was listening. "They told me you're not evil, not going to mind control me, but I hope you don't mind I kind of wanna shoot your eye out."

"Understandable," Loki mumbled, turning his head away.

It felt like someone was trying to cram something akin to the size of Russia into his head.

"The Hulk is MIA. I think he fell out of a hole on the side of the ship. Or he jumped ship," Clint casually offered. "And that's all I know, as I don't remember shit from when I was under your control."

"Not me. My evil half," Loki corrected.

Clint snorted. "Can't I just hate both halves?"

"If you must."

Loki's middle ached. It felt as if someone had blasted a hole through him, then tried to put him back together badly.

The door opened. Loki pried his eyes back open as Romanov entered, looking a little beat up but otherwise unharmed.

"Good. You're both awake," she said flatly. "Stark and Rogers got the engine working and we didn't fall out of the sky, but we can't fly anywhere because our systems are down. And we're not sea worthy due to several large holes in the sides and bottom."

"We're Swiss cheese!" Barton quipped.

She gave Barton a look, then turned her attention to Loki.

"I'm sorry, Agent Romanov," Loki mumbled, raising his hand to his head.

She shook her head at him.

"You did warn us he'd do this. He did exactly as you said he'd do. He activated the Hulk, sent Barton to make us dead in the water and escaped with the magical stick."

Loki sighed, cringing as pain radiated from his middle.

He had yet to investigate what was causing the pain.

"It's honestly amazing you're alive," Romanov muttered, taking a step closer to Loki. "You should have been burned beyond recognition by the explosion, but other than the metal rod through your middle and the blood gushing from your head you appeared fine."

"Why'd you lot save him?" Barton asked.

Romanov turned to him and said, "He's on our side, Clint."

Barton snorted, struggling against his bonds.

"Agent Romanov, I believe you can free him."

"He's strapped down so he won't kill you," Romanov pointed out. "He tried to take your eye out the moment he saw you."

Loki closed his eyes and felt around with his magic. He had broken almost every single bone in his body, had several minor burns (magic and his Juton skin might have helped with the heat from the blast), had a gaping hole in his middle the mortals had tried to patch up, oh, had crushed his skull.

No wonder his head felt like mush.

"I should be dead," Loki muttered.

"You were in some sort of bubble when Stark and Thor unearthed you," Romanov said. "Only Thor was able to break through it. He said your magic was protecting you, keeping you alive but wasn't strong enough to fix you while you were out cold."

Loki hummed his agreement, not having anything to add.

"Do you know where they are?" Clint asked, sounding oddly small.

"Stark's house in Malibu," Romanov answered. "Stark confirmed _he_ arrived there yesterday."

"Of course," Loki muttered, opening his eyes back up.

"Your friend seems to be amped up on magic. She teleported into the lab, took the specter, freed her boss, then they both went poof," Romanov said, looking back at Loki.

Loki frowned, staring at Romanov in question. "That ought not to be possible."

Loki realized she hadn't mentioned any deaths. "They didn't kill anyone, did they? Is Agent Coulson alive?"

"There were a few severe injuries, but no dead yet. And yeah, Coulson is alive. Did he die in the movie?"

"He was the tragic death that brought you together," Loki admitted. "He lives, thought, and gets his own TV show."

"Of course he does," Clint snorted. "He's Phil. Wait, what? Movie? TV show? What the hell are you two talking about?"

Romanov ignored Clint. "We are going to go stop them the moment you two are ready."

She looked between the two men— one strapped to the bed, the other looking like death.

"I doubt he'll be ready any time soon. He had a metal bar through his middle when they wheeled him in here," Clint said, struggling again. "Seriously. He said you could untie me."

"You are not to harm him. He did not take your freewill," Romanov insisted.

Clint sighed, the fight draining out of him. "Fine."

"And you claim you don't remember," Romanov added.

"I don't really. I remember…feeling unmade all of a sudden. I remember feeling like I'd been sent to the back of the room for timeout. At times I kind of escaped…but I was never able to influence what I was doing. I don't remember what I was doing or why I was so upset about it. But, I remember being mad as hell at Loki."

Clint sent a look at Loki.

"That's not Loki," Romanov said.

"I am Loki," Loki quipped, hands feeling around his middle. All he felt were bandages. He used his magic (now that he was awake) and began to repair the damage. He had no idea what the mortals had done to him, but they'd had stitched him together in various places.

Odd.

"How did you get him out?" Clint asked. "The Loki in my head. How'd you get him out?"

"Hard hit to the head," Romanov said. "We need to hit…King Reindeer over the head. Hard. Multiple times."

"King Reindeer?" Clint asked.

"Loki, can you sit up?" Romanov inquired.

"In a moment," Loki gritted out, his magic flowing through his middle—repairing the damage to his organs was hard work. Especially with whatever Thor allowed the mortals to do while he was unconscious.

The two spies allowed him quiet as he finished repairing his insides. Letting out a breath he opened his eyes, turning his head towards the pair.

"I don't know if I can sit up at the moment."

"You don't need to," Romanov said softly. "Clint, look at his eyes."

Jaw tightening and grinding his teeth, Clint slowly turned to face Loki. Loki met the now grey, clear eyes calmly. Clint frowned.

"What am I looking for?"

"What color are his eyes?"

"A freaky shade of green. I saw that when I first saw him. The girl had the same—"

He stopped talking suddenly.

"The girl had what?" Romanov asked.

"Jessica's eyes are the same shade of green as mine," Loki supplied. "No doubt Agent Barton noticed when we first arrived. Did you happen to notice the other's eyes when he arrived?"

Barton shook his head.

"The girl's eyes turned a weird shade of blue-green after Loki touched her with the spear," Clint gritted out.

"The other Loki has blue eyes," Romanov said flatly. "He's under the same spell you were, only it's got a different hold on him."

Clint grunted. "Fine. I won't take _his_ eye out. I'll take the other guy's eye out instead."

"That, Agent Barton, is fine with me," Loki allowed.

"Then I'll find whoever did it to him and take both his eyes out," Clint muttered.

Romanov unstrapped Barton and allowed him to sit up fully. The man rubbed his wrists and eyed Loki. Loki closed his eyes again. His magic was too low for him to do anything at the moment to further his healing— or rid himself of the remaining pain.

"How long do you need to be battle ready?"

"A few hours," Loki said.

Romanov nodded and began to do something to the bed Loki was in.

"Come on, Clint. I'll fill you in on our way to the jet."

"Jet?"

"Help me roll his bed. We're taking him with us."

* * *

_You tore me apart / Broke all my bones and shot through my heart / I always used to pretend / The hero really gets the girl in the end _

_-Kill Hannah, "From Now On" _

* * *

Staring at Loki on the white hospital bed was beyond weird.

The hospital bed was chained into place and the god on it was as still as corpse. The only way Clint was sure he wasn't dead was the fact his skin was slowly becoming more pink than the chalky, grey white it'd been when Clint had first awoken in the medial bay next to the unconscious god with a metal bar through his middle.

"You could stop staring."

Clint startled, turning to face Captain America.

And that was all kinds of bizzaro as well. Between the fact Clint had read Captain America comics as a kid and Coulson was an avid fan, seeing the guy in real if was just almost too much for Clint to deal with at the moment. He was sure his head would explode and cover the hero in brain matter.

Gross.

"He's out for the count. I doubt he noticed," Clint muttered, turning his attention to his bow and arrows that sat in his lap. The same ones Stark had had kittens over upon seeing in Barton's possession.

"WHY DOES HE KEEP STEALING MY STUFF!" Stark had roared, storming out of the briefing room they'd all gathered before leaving when Fury handed Barton the quiver and bow. Fury had claimed they'd been on Clint when he'd entered the ship, but Barton had never seen them before in his life.

They were clearly made by Stark (he put his name on everything) and Clint grudgingly agreed they were beyond cool.

"I know he looks just like the man who…violated your mind, but he's not like that. He's helping us," Captain America insisted.

Clint eyed the blond next to him.

"Yeah, I know. He's got green eyes," Clint grumbled.

For some reason that comment made Captain America's cheeks go a bit pink. He schooled his facial features, but it left Clint feeling wrong footed— more so than he already felt for being one of Loki's minions and not remembering a thing.

"Did the Man of Iron go ahead?" Thor inquired quietly. Well, quietly for the guy. Clint was pretty sure Thor had one setting: LOUD. In favor of his recovering brother, he'd tried to take it down a notch.

It didn't make much of a difference.

"Yeah. He's pretty mad about them taking over his house," Captain America said, rubbing his neck. "Is Doctor Banner alright?"

"Yes, he's fine," Banner muttered, sitting up for the first time since they'd found him in some rubble in an abandoned industrial park. Somehow he'd wound up a hundred miles from where he'd originally fallen out of the Hellicarrier.

"Oh, you're up," Captain America said, looking surprised. "How are you feeling?"

"What happened to Lo?" Banner asked, swinging his feet to the floor of the jet. He looked rather worried as he studied the overly pale form on the white hospital bed.

"He was gravely injured," Thor said slowly and gravely. "He is working on healing himself."

Banner stared at Thor with a look of disbelieve. He stood up and crossed to the bed Loki rested upon and eyed the fallen god for a long time till he reached forward and felt for a pulse at the neck. Loki made no indication he felt Banner's touch. Banner removed his hand from the god's neck and lifted the blanket. Clint couldn't see what he was doing, but assumed he was checking out the damage.

It was beyond weird to see someone handle the man with such care and no sign of fear. Banner acted as if Loki was a docile, injured bunny or something.

Clint tightened his grip on his weapon.

"Did he had an injury around the stomach area?" Banner asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Aye," Thor said.

"Metal rod through the middle," Clint supplied.

Banner looked bewildered. He let the blanket fall back down.

"What is it, Banner?" Thor gently asked.

"His middle is….well, it's completely healed," Banner said.

"Magic voodoo," Clint offered, grimly smiling.

Banner stared at him for a moment before looking at Loki again. He opened his mouth to say something else, when Stark's voice came over the radio up front. Everyone fell silent in order to hear what the snarky bastard had to say.

"They've got the machine for the portal set up," Stark reported, sounding more annoyed than mad.

"Can you stop them?" Natasha asked.

Stark snorted. "Not in this suit. It's done for after the damage the engine on the Hellicarrier did."

Captain America colored and shifted uneasily. Clint quirked an eyebrow.

"I almost didn't make it here. Damn it! Why did they invade my house? I just finished the remodel!"

Clint saw Natasha clench her jaw, but she did not remark the reason Stark needed a remodel the last time was all his own fault.

"Can you switch out suits?" she asked.

"Jarvis, what's the status of, well, you in the house?"

"I'm not in the house," came the AI's posh voice.

"You're not?"

"No, sir."

Stark hummed. "You guys get my new suit from the Tower?"

"Yes, did you manage to grab the bracelets?"

"Yeah. I did. Genius here," Stark quipped. "Okay. I see Loki in my living room. I'm going to go throw him out. Laters."

And the com went dead. Natasha ground her teeth together and stepped on the gas. Everyone else exchanged looks.

* * *

_You can lie to yourself / And all of your friends / And pretend you don't care / But circumstance gets in the way_

_-Lucky Boy's Confusion, "Fred Astaire" _

* * *

Loki snapped his eyes open.

"Brother?"

"Yes?"

"What is the matter?"

"I'm awake. Thor, what is going on?"

"We have arrived in California. We landed outside of the Iron Man's home," Thor reported.

Loki swiftly sat up. He felt his magic swirl within his core, protesting the sudden movement when it was still trying to build itself back up. Ignoring it for the most part, Loki swung his legs over the side of the bed. Suddenly, a blur of black shot passed cursing loudly.

"Loki just threw Stark out the window!" the blur shouted, jamming his finger into a button at the back of the plane.

"Hawkeye, calm down," Captain America said, appearing out of nowhere, holding his shield before him. "We planned for this."

"THE HATCH IS STILL CLOSED!" Barton shouted.

"JARVIS DEPLOY!" Stark's voice was shouting over the radio as Thor shoved it in Loki's ear. "ANYTIME NOW!"

Loki allowed Thor to aid him in getting up off the bed as blur of red and gold metal flew passed. Barton managed to get the back hatch open just in time for the armor to fly out of the plane. Everyone was silent, till a moment later, Iron Man flew into the air and back into the house that hung off the cliff.

"Stark!" Loki barked into the radio in his ear. "The portal is opening. The aliens are going to pour out shortly."

"He's right," Rogers said, nodding. "I need you in the air. Thor can you deal with Loki. I mean, the other one. The reindeer one."

"Aye, Captain. Brother?"

"I will be fine," Loki assured his brother. Thor did not believe him. "I am fully healed, Thor. Go. Stop him."

"You do not have your armor," Thor realized.

Loki was dressed in a SHEILD uniform. He waved Thor off.

"There's a shield around the portal," Stark's voice said over the radio. "I don't think I told you earlier. It's different than it was last time. It's greenish. Not blue like GQ said."

"What does that mean?" Romanov asked.

"It means he used more than the Tesseract," Loki said. "My magic is green."

"The magic around the tiny female when she no longer looked like Stark was green," Thor said, looking confused. "Did she steal your magic?"

"You cannot steal magic," Loki snapped. "The other does not have full access to naturally green magic. His is tainted. It ought to be blue."

"I haven't seen you do green magic," Romanov said, appearing at Loki's side. "What's the plan? We can debate magic later."

Everyone knew she was right.

"The people are all inside their homes because they think it's raining," Rogers said, sounding a little confused. He clearly did not know how the people of Southern California viewed rain. "For the moment, that is likely the safest place for them to be. We need to neutralize Loki. Then deal with…what the…"

The Chitauri chose this moment to pour out of the portal in hoards. Loki stared. The sight was chilling and at the same time more powerful than it'd appeared on the tiny screen of Jess's television when Loki had watched _The Avengers_.

Stark swore rather colorfully.

"Keep them occupied, Iron Man," Rogers managed to say. He looked at Loki, as if he had the answers.

Loki nodded. "We must keep them…within the barriers of this estate."

"Did you hear that, Stark?"

Stark swore again.

Above their heads, the aliens were quickly spreading out beyond the grounds of Stark's home, blindly attacking nearby homes. People began screaming, things began to catch on fire and chaos broke out in the surrounding neighborhoods.

"We need to get…the people out," Rogers finally said.

"Where? Where will we put them?" Romanov asked.

"I will deal with the people," Loki offered. He raised his hands, allowing Romanov to see green magic produced by Loki. "Usually, I do not put color into my magic. Wastes energy and is quite showy. It does naturally show up within shields I create. Haven't found a way to stop it doing that."

"Good. Lo, go do…what you have to do to keep the people safe," Rogers said.

Loki teleported away before he could dwell on the fact Rogers had called him "Lo." Once he was in the streets, Loki reached into the empty space storage unit and grabbed his staff. He eyed the chaos— people running, Chitauri firing and blasting, and the fires and explosions sending debris everywhere. Squaring his shoulders, Loki set to work setting up shields around people, homes and knocking the warrior aliens out of the sky.

* * *

_As it's winding down to zero / I am your unlikely hero / I'll see this through / There's so much of me in you_

_-Maroon 5, "No Curtain Call" _

* * *

Banner Hulked out the moment Loki (or Lo as the others seemed to call him for some reason) vanished into thin air. The green rage machine ran across the lawn of Stark's home, used one of the car parked in the driveway and jumped into the air. He instantly grabbed hold of one of the alien hover crafts and began smashing. Rogers ordered Clint up on high and to lay cover for Natasha and himself while they battled the aliens falling to the ground. Clint climbed up a tree and began shooting arrows.

From his view in the tree, he could see the aliens that'd gotten way beyond Stark's grounds were behind blasted out of the air by energy blasts lightly tinted green, while there were signs of random green shields all over the place.

Clint turned his attention to the battle taking place in Stark's front yard and something caught his eye. A young woman (maybe this Jessica person they kept talking about) came flying out of the house, her arms raised over her head to protect herself from the flying debris. She dodged around the rubble and dead aliens till she neared the tree Clint was sitting in. Clint paused in laying down cover to catch the demented smirk on her face before she tossed something into the tree.

Clint jumped out of the tree right before the entire thing blew up.

"Hey! That wasn't nice!" Clint shouted at her, rolling to his feet. She was standing behind a rather large piece of what was formerly a wall of Stark's home. She gave him a rather evil smile and raised her hands, conjured up something and threw it at Captain America, who dodged out of the way before it exploded in dark green flames.

She let out a rather maniacal laugh and darted off.

"Hawkeye, mind taking care of her?" Rogers asked over the radio.

She threw another green bomb, attempting to hit the Hulk as he took to smashing what looked like a huge flying snake thing— which was following Iron Man.

"What the hell is that?" Clint asked.

"Bringing the party to you!" Stark shouted, then added, "HEY! THAT IS NOT WHAT THOSE ARE FOR!"

Something blew up in green flames.

"Why are they green?" Stark asked, sounding bewildered.

"She has something you built?" Clint shirked, scrambling up and over ruble and debris after the girl.

"They're not bombs! They aren't supposed to explode in a fiery ball of green either!" Stark shouted, then cursed. "JESSICA WITTON I'M TELLING GQ ON YOU!"

"STARK!" shouted several people.

The Hulk roared and landed with a loud thud somewhere in Stark's yard as the snake thing crashed to the ground.

"Follow Witton, Hawkeye," Rogers ordered. "THOR, LO, report!"

Clint got to his feet, made his way around the rubble and into the house where Witton had vanished when Stark had started yelling at her. Good Loki reported that he'd shielded what he could and he was busy. Thor said nothing— clearly still battling Evil Loki.

Clint vaulted over some hedges that were somehow still intact and scrambled up the stairs into the house. The sight that greeted him was not what he had honestly expected. Clint knew he'd been in the house as a mind controlled freak and thus had no idea what the inside actually looked like, but the reality was not what he'd ever imagine.

The place was in ruins and it was a tribute to whoever built the joint that the roof was still standing judging by the destruction inside.

Thor and Evil Loki were locked in battle in Stark's living room, sending bits of concrete, glass and other debris all over the place. Clint spotted dark hair vanish down a stairwell that had seen better days and followed, sliding down the stairwell since the stairs had ceased to exist.

"STOP BREAKING MY STUFF!" Stark shouted over the radio.

"FOCUS ON THE BATTLE, IRON MAN!" Rogers shouted back.

Clint reached the lower level, which must have been Stark's lab/workshop/garage. Witton turned, noticing Clint had followed. She yanked out a gun and shot at him. Clint dodged, getting off an arrow. He heard her gasp. Peaking out behind the tool box he'd taken refuge behind, he saw her holding her arm. She threw the gun aside and jumped into one of the cars, staring it up and tearing out of the place with the music blasting. Clint leapt to his feet and decided not to take one of the classic's Stark had, but the newest looking sports car in the garage.

Clint felt around for keys for a moment till the AI butler said, "Sir, the keys for the 2013 Acura NSX are in here."

Clint looked over at a noise to his right and saw the AI had opened up a cabinet containing keys to all Stark's various vehicles.

"Thanks," Clint said, darting across the lab and staring at the keys. The ones to the car he wanted suddenly extended. Clint grabbed them and thanked the AI again. He sprinted back to the car, got in and started it up. It roared to life and Clint took off after Jessica.

"WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN MY CARS!" Stark shouted. "THOSE ARE MY CARS!"

"STARK!" barked several people over the com link.

"I JUST GOT THAT ONE! I HAVEN'T EVEN DRIVEN IT YET! YOU BETTER NOT CRASH LEGOLAS!"

* * *

_Standing on the edge of something much too deep / It's funny how we feel so much / But we cannot say a word_

_-Sarah McLachlan, "I Will Remember You" _

* * *

"LO! LOKI!" Roger's voice bellowed suddenly. "Can your brother swim?"

Loki thrust his staff into a head of a Chiturai, smashing it into the street before he answered. "Yes, why?"

"I think Rock of Ages likes throwing people out windows," was Stark's offering.

"He's got plenty to choose from," Romanov said, then grunted.

Loki stopped what he was doing and teleported to the cliff edge— just in time to see Thor get control of his descent and raise his hammer. Thor shot into the air.

"Guess he doesn't need to know to swim when he can fly," Romanov's slightly breathless voice came.

Loki turned his attention to the huge gaping hole Thor made when Loki had thrown him out of the house and into the ocean. The other Loki, RG, stood in the hole, glaring at Thor as he took flight and didn't crash into the water. His eyes scanned the chaos and destruction till he locked eyes with Loki. A menacing smirk painted his angular face and he took a running leap, landing on one of the gliders. Loki was about to follow and go after the man when heard an explosion in the distance followed by a string of curses from Barton.

"Hawkeye, reprot," Rogers demanded.

Barton continued to curse till he said, "Uh, I don't think Witton's part of Loki's Mindless Army any longer."

"What happened?" Loki demanded, completely distracted as Thor landed next to him, using his hammer to whack an alien who tried to attack while Loki was distracted.

"She crashed her car," Barton reported. "She's out cold. Big cut on her head. I've, well, I'm trying to stop the bleeding without moving her."

"Leave her there, Hawkeye. We need you back here. The Reindeer is airborne," Rogers said in his leader voice.

Rogers looked at Loki across the battlefield and met his eyes. _She will be fine, _those eyes informed him. Loki was unsure how Rogers knew this, but as he dodged an attack by an alien, he knew he had bigger problems than an unconscious friend.

"OVER HERE! OVER HERE!" Barton suddenly shouted.

"Hawkeye!" Rogers shouted, turning away from Loki to fling his shield into battle.

"The ambulance can't get here, but I got a paramedic with her now. I'm on my way," Clint reported.

"Captain, I'm going…" Loki trailed off. "I need to…"

Loki did not wait for an answer. He removed the radio from his ear, handing it to Thor. Thor appeared confused, but held the radio in his free hand while whacking an alien upside the head and away from them.

Loki knew what he had to do.

"Remember me, brother," Loki said before he vanished.

* * *

_Well it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth / The minor fall and the major lift / The baffled king composing Hallelujah_

_-Jeff Buckley, "Hallelujah"_

* * *

"What's next?" Clint demanded, pushing himself to his feet.

After diving out of the car as an alien glider fired something at him making the car explode.

Stark was still shirking in outrage.

"I HATE! I HATE! I HATE!" Stark raged, unable to express himself as the aliens attempted to blast himself, his home, and his belongings to kingdom come.

In the distance Clint heard the sirens of the emergency services. He hoped they'd eventually make it to Jessica and her crashed car along side the road (along with all the other injured people in Malibu). The paramedic that had made his way to the crash scene promised to stay with her. The guy hadn't seemed too worried, but then again the world was ending.

"Get up top. Iron Man? Give him a lift?" Rogers ordered, snapping Clint back to matters at hand.

Clint made sure he still had his quiver and bow (thank god it collapsed and fit in his pocket) and grumbled, "I can't wait."

"I HATE—" Stark shouted, then cursed badly enough to make a sailor blush. "But, I'll grab Robin Hood, Cap."

Iron Man appeared out of nowhere, grabbed Clint and dragged him off to a high cliff and drooped him before shooting back towards his former home— cursing a blue streak the whole way. Clint ground his teeth together, got to his feet (yet again), found a safe place and began shooting arrows at anything that wasn't red or the Hulk. He noticed Loki, the evil one, on a glider and aimed an arrow at him.

One of the super secret exploding arrows Stark had in his lab. (It was clear to Clint that even though Stark had been rejected from The Avengers Initiative, he wanted to be part of Fury's Super Secret Boy Band. All the Stark tech gadgets Clint had on his person when Natasha had knocked him out proved it. Why else would Stark design a bow and arrows if not for Clint?)

The bastard caught the exploding arrow before it hit him in the eye. Former master's eyes met former mind slave for a moment before Mr Evil dove at the house, taking shelter within its remains.

"Wimp," Clint muttered, notching another arrow and taking aim.

* * *

_You're cold inside / You're not the one I hoped for / I'll see you on the other side_

_-Keane, "Untitled 1" _

* * *

Loki had teleported to Jess after Barton had left. She was in rough shape, but she'd live thanks to the magic flowing through her system. There was indeed a medical person with her, so Loki quickly left to face RG.

He shouldn't have teleported to Jess. He knew the moment the Deranged Reindeer returned to Stark's house he didn't have enough energy for a fight, but a fight to the death was in order. Loki felt it within his bones, his soul, his very being. The same things that told him he belonged in this reality and not the other reality were speaking to him again— telling him he had to put himself back together.

It was time.

Jess would live and he'd be one person.

"Finally," RG breathed, stepping off the glider and onto the broken patio that overlooked the ocean. "I've been waiting for you to show yourself to me, weakling."

RG sneered, twirling his Glow Stick of Destiny (as Stark fondly called it) in front of him. He pointed it at Loki and blasted him with energy. Loki reacted on instinct and blocked the blast with one of his own from his staff.

This enraged the Deranged Reindeer and he launched himself across the room, throwing the staff aside in favor of the knives they both favored.

Loki used his staff to propel himself into a roundhouse kick, knocking the helmet off the Deranged Reindeer and into a wall.

The battle was on.

* * *

_Today is gonna be the day / That they're gonna throw it back to you / By now you should've somehow realized what you gotta do_

_-Oasis, "Wonderwall"_

* * *

Loki had seen it on one of Jess's television shows. He had scoffed. The manner in which magic was portrayed in the show was flawed and extremely stupid, but one of the concepts appealed to him, even if it wasn't feasible and silly.

As Loki was locked in battle with the less desirable aspects of himself, he suddenly remembered the show, it's obsession with good and evil, and more importantly hearts.

It was all about hearts on the show— black hearts, hearts innocent, hearts pure and good, hearts tainted with evil.

Loki's heart was tainted no matter which form he was within. Just because he'd been separated from his rage and madness, did not make him innocent, good and pure.

No.

Loki was sure he'd never been innocent.

Or pure.

And yet, what Fury has told him rang within his mind.

Choices. Choices were what counted.

Loki had the ability to make choices that did not lead down a dark road. He had done it.

RG sneered at Loki, flying across the once smooth marble floor towards where he had thrown his specter. He snatched it up and shot an energy blast.

It hit the wall behind Loki's head.

"Enough of this, dearest," RG mocked, closing the distance between the two.

It was clear RG had more energy (magical and physical) than Loki. Loki was struggling to get back to his feet.

"Let's see what is in your heart," RG softly said, raising the pointed end of his specter up towards Loki's chest.

Loki hit the golden rod with his forearm, knocking it out of the other's grasp due to his sudden movement. Loki was on his feet and shoving his hand into the other's chest before either processed what was happening.

His hand went straight into the other's chest to his beating heart.

"Oh, this is new," RG mused as he stared at the arm sticking out of his chest.

Loki could feel the other's heart beating within his hand. He squeezed down and focused on that feeling, focused on pouring himself into the heart.

He did not intend to rip the heart out as they did in the program that had given the idea.

No, he was going to put himself back together and for some reason, this manner made sense. Everything was telling him this was how to put himself back together, to meld the two parts he had to pour himself back into his own heart.

Mad, Insane, Angry Loki had their actual body.

Loki had no idea why or how he'd known this. It just made sense.

"Stop! No!" RG yelled suddenly sounding panicked. He tried to move found he was unable to move. "What are you doing?"

"Putting us back together," Loki replied calmly, meeting the other's frightened blue eyes with his calm green ones.

The other Loki's blue eyes began flickering. Loki pushed harder with his own magic, turned them so the other one was pressed against a remaining wall. He tighten his grip on the other's beating heart and felt himself growing faint.

"No," the other whispered.

"Yes," Loki whispered back, feeling light headed. He allowed himself one last smirk before darkness took him.

* * *

_You will give up, you always do / And time won't let you follow through / Your weakness has shown / And now you're everything they've thrown at you_

_-Imperative Reaction, "Severed"_

* * *

Everything was blurry and muted for a moment till he became aware he was flying through the air surrounded by the Chitauri. Then something pushed him into the back and everything blurred even more.

The next time things became clearer, Thor was pressing him up against the wall, shouting at him.

"I know you are in there! What did you do with him!" Thor screamed.

An insane laugh left his mouth as he stared at his brother.

"I ate him!" he shouted into Thor's face.

Thor roared.

"Stop this madness, Loki! Stop it now!"

Loki rammed his head into the wall behind him. He felt a fog lift in his mind and the world became sharper suddenly.

"Look at this! Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?" Thor demanded, jerking Loki around to look at the damage being dealt to the Los Angeles area.

It was horrible.

Smoke was rising up all over the place and the noise of various sirens and people was deafening over the noise of battle.

"It's too late," Loki weakly said, feeling at war with himself. Something was eating at his mind, his heart and creeping into his veins.

It was evil.

It burned.

Thor jerked Loki back to face him.

"No. We can stop it. Together," Thor insisted, searching Loki's face. He must have seen something, as his face lit up with hope. "You're in there, are you not?"

And something kicked Loki in the head and everything went back to being muted and blurry.

* * *

_Sometimes you scrape and sink so low / I'm shocked at what you're capable of / And if this is a coronation / I ain't feeling the love_

_-My Chemical Romance, "Kill All Your Friends" _

* * *

The battle seemed to go on ages after they'd lost Good Loki and were left behind with the evil version. Thor was once again thrown from the house, only this time he didn't seem to have the will to use his hammer to fly to safety, so he landed with a large splash in the sea.

He got back out, looking like a drowned, lost puppy.

The Hulk landed next to Thor, shoved him and shouted something that made Thor regain his focus.

Captain America and Natasha were both still in Stark's front yard battling with aliens on the ground that came in wave after wave.

Clint stayed on the cliff till he ran out of arrows. After getting Iron Man to give him another lift, Clint joined Captain America and Natasha in the front yard for some hand to hand.

"We gotta get that portal down," Natasha shouted. "We need to stop them coming in."

Hulk smashed something. Thor roared and lighting stuck, causing the people of Los Angeles to freak out even further.

"What do you suggest?" Rogers asked.

"I'm going up there," Natasha said, pointing at the still somehow intact roof of Stark's former home.

"Are you sure?" Clint asked, using a metal pole he found to whack the living daylights out of an alien.

"Yeah. Give me a boost," she must have said to Rogers.

Captain America nodded curtly as Thor landed with a thud next to them.

"My brother is gone," Thor proclaimed, using his hammer to whack some aliens out of his way.

"He looks like he's still in there," Stark said over the radio. "Whoa! Watch out. Another snake!"

Clint hated those snakes— huge, ugly, alien snake thingys of destruction and doom.

The Hulk jumped up onto the snake and set about smashing.

"Give me a boots," Natasha repeated. "I need a glider."

Rogers nodded. Clint and Thor gave them cover as they worked together to launch Natasha at one of the gliders. She grabbed hold and went flying off into the air as the snake crashed to the ocean and the Hulk crashed down near Rogers.

"Hulk," Rogers said. "You need to take Loki out. Help Black Widow get the staff. We need to close the portal."

What did the staff have to do with the portal?

Clint whacked a few aliens while spinning in a circle.

"HULK LIKE LOKI."

"The other one. The evil one. He's in the house. Go smash him."

Rogers' mouth was a thin line as he gave the order.

"NO LIKE PUNY GOD. HULK SMASH."

Clint watched as the green monster took off towards the house, smashing his way into the former mansion.

"Seriously!" Stark shouted. "He couldn't use one of the holes Thor made?"

* * *

_Bang and light, that's all they do / Beings like gods, there are too few_

_-JJ72, "Surrender"_

* * *

"I got the Glow Stick of Destiny!" Natasha shouted. "I can close the portal! Selvig says it'll still work!"

Clint was too busy to be confused.

"WAIT! We got trouble in River City!" Stark's voice sounded over the com as Clint used his trusty metal rod to bash some aliens brains out.

"River City?" Rogers asked. "Where is that?"

"Trouble! We got trouble!" Stark shouted, sounding as if he was struggling with something. "With a capital T that rhymes with B and stands for BOMB!"

"WHAT?" everyone asked.

"I'm going to fly up into the hole, throw the bomb and you keep the Chitteratti distracted. Savvy?"

"STARK, NO!"

"It worked last time!"

"I don't know how long I can hold this!"

"YOU ALMOST DIED!"

"But I didn't!" Stark shouted. "I'm doing this!"

Iron Man zoomed over their heads at great speed.

"Hold the door for me," he said."

"STARK!" several people shouted.

"Why does Stark have a bomb?" Clint asked, whacking an alien and then thrusting the metal pole through its center.

The alien fell down. Clint tried to take the pole out, but it was stuck.

"Hey! You stole my weapon!"

Something exploded near Clint, making him forget about the rod and scramble to find another weapon while Rogers went running towards the house.

* * *

_Holding lightly words that make you aware / Your head's spinning / No one knows you're not there_

_-Tonic, "Future Says Run" _

* * *

The next time Loki realized something was going on and things were no longer blurry, he was lying in a crater.

"Oh," he breathed, feeling everything in his body ache. Then, he realized his mind was free from the dark, sinking evil that had been swirling around within his veins before.

He was in control.

Loki was amazed for only a few minutes before he realized he had his anger, his rage, and madness were there, bubbling and burning just as they had been during his final days on Asgard. Everything he felt, knew and was mixed together to create confusion and utter inner turmoil.

But, Loki was whole.

And he had no clue how he felt about that. He stared at the ceiling, feeling the beating the Hulk had dealt out to him with every fiber of his being. He closed his eyes, still hearing the battle raging above his head.

Then, it all suddenly stopped.

"There!" someone shouted above his head. "He fell through right before it closed!"

"HULK GET!"

Something smashed above his head and the ceiling caved in.

* * *

_Anything that's dead shall be re-grown / And your vicious pain, your warning sign / You will be fine._

_-Angels & AIrwaves, "The Adventure"_

* * *

Iron Man threw pieces of debris aside, bitching the entire time about his destroyed home.

"Well, at least it wasn't your freaking, brand new, ugly tower," Clint snarked.

"Oh, shut up, Legolos," Stark snapped.

Thor and the Hulk helped Iron Man out clearing the pieces of roof, house and whatever else off Loki.

He was Loki. There was only one now, the other having…gone somewhere else. Or something. Clint wasn't clear what had happened. Natasha said Loki had put himself back together while Thor said Loki had told him he'd eaten the other one.

The Hulk smashed a few pieces of bigger debris, looking joyful.

"At least you're alive," Captain America muttered, kneeling in the debris and attempting to help. He couldn't lift as much as the other three, but damn if he wasn't going to unearth the fallen god.

"Who do you think we wound up with?" Natasha asked as the first signs of Loki began to appear as the guys cleared away the rubble. She clutched the specter tighter, raising it a little. Thor fell to his knees near the head and Iron Man threw the last bit of debris off the body to reveal who'd they were stuck with.

He looked like the insane one, as in he was wearing the deranged ones clothing.

"He is both now," Thor said, studying the unconscious form. "As Lady Natasha said, he put himself back together."

"He put himself back together," Rogers echoed faintly, staring at the man in the hole they'd made in the rubble.

"He was broken?" Stark asked, looking at something in his hands with a heartbroken expression.

"He split within the void. His madness broke away from…everything I knew my brother to be," Thor explained, glancing at Natasha who nodded her agreement.

She clutched the spear harder and a muscle twitched in her jaw.

"Weird," Stark said, throwing what used to be his couch aside still holding whatever had caused the heartbroken expression earlier.

"Careful!" Rogers suddenly shouted as the couch landed a little too close to Loki. "He doesn't look so good."

"Well, between the roof, the smashing the Hulk gave him and his earlier damage, I'd think not," Natasha pointed out, crouching down next to Rogers.

"He lost that body," Thor said. "This is the body of the mad one."

"So, still not in good shape," Clint muttered. "I mean, he looked bad when he arrived. The other one, uh, Good Loki, was in good shape when he got here."

The group stared down at the body they'd uncovered. He looked as if he was sleeping peacefully. The group watched the man calmly till he began to slowly wake. Clint quickly grabbed an arrow (Stark had more arrows in the lab— which was mostly intact— for Clint) and aimed at Loki's head.

* * *

_I'll take my heart / And rip my feelings out / Before they make me doubt / And I'll fall down with flames burning, alive again._

_-Quietdrive, "Rise From the Ashes"_


	7. Live Like You Mean It

**Disclaimer: I do now own any of the Marvel characters. The Avengers was written by Joss Whedon, movie transcript taken from the website Scribd. If you know it, I do now own it.**

* * *

_**Live Like You Mean It**_

* * *

_And I've lost who I am / And I can't understand why my heart is so broken_

_-Trading Yesterday, "Shattered" _

* * *

Loki became aware of what both halves of him had gone through during their time apart in a rush as he slowly came to the second time after his mind had cleared.

He saw and felt everything.

The torture.

The movies.

The madness and anger that overtook him and fueled his will to live.

The depression that led to acceptance of who he was.

The true plan Thanos wished to achieve.

The way Jess tended to do laundry at inconvenient times.

The plan to make sure the mad titian did not succeed, yet wound up back in Asgard (the other was desperate in his heart to go back to Asgard, even through all the pain).

The mental pain was suffocating. How had he breathed?

During his time in the other universe, he had healed mentally and dealt with the betrayal of his father, the fact he was adopted, and a Frost Giant. He had healed further during his interactions with the Avengers.

Loki was back to square one now. Somehow, the madness, anger, rage, and self-loathing made all the progress seem pointless and stupid.

He hated Thor.

He hated the All-Father.

He loved Thor.

He loved the All-Father.

He loved his mother. (He had always loved Frigga, no matter what it seemed.)

It was confusing.

He was the Mad One, he was the Good One, he was the Confused-Mad-Sane One.

Or, did that make him the Insane One?

"He's waking up," a voice said above his head.

Blinking, Loki's eyes focused on the group around him. Barton had an arrow pointed at him, Romanov eyed Loki cautiously holding the still glowing staff yet not pointing it at him, Rogers was trying to search his face for something, Stark appeared exhausted, the Hulk looked mad, and Thor wore a relieved expression.

Loki glanced around and noted the crater was now located within a hole of rubble about three feet high. He could see the sky above his head, the roof having finally given up its battle to stand.

There was almost nothing left of Stark's home.

Rogers was the only Avenger within the hole with Loki, everyone else was standing above him. Eyeing Barton, Loki began to attempt to sit up. He got as far as his elbows when the pain stopped him.

Loki turned his attention back to the Avengers around him and gave a weary smile. He met Stark's eyes.

"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now," he said quietly.

The Hulk snorted.

"Oh, crap, he's evil!" Stark shouted, raising his hands up to point them at Loki.

"He is not! Look at his eyes!" Thor roared.

"I am both Lokis you knew. As of now, neither is under the control of Thanos," Loki reported, sitting up further with Roger's aid, hearing his back crack and a few bones shift in ways they ought not be shifting. Rogers looked alarmed at the noise.

"Who?" everyone asked— except Thor.

Thor blanched.

"Oh, didn't I tell you about him? He's the one in charge," Loki said blithely.

Everyone began talking at once. The only person Loki heard was Rogers.

"What happened? Where'd the other one go?" Rogers asked, his eyes darting back and forth as he helped Loki stand.

"SILENCE!" Thor roared. "Thanos is no longer your concern. Brother…"

Loki was still eye locked with Rogers, who failed to have noticed Thor's outburst.

"I put myself back together," Loki said, meeting Roger's blue gaze steadily. "I was ripped apart in the void. The insanity, madness, and anger that had gripped me upon finding out about my true heritage was left behind while everything else was ripped away. I fell into the care of Thanos and he turned him into his weapon."

"So, Reindeer Games _was_ like an evil twin," Stark said, sitting down on a large bit of rubble that looked like a chair. The weariness the man felt was clear in his posture. Loki wondered what had happened to the man that made him look so much more tired than the others.

Thor reached a hand down and pulled Loki out of the hole. Loki bit down on his lip in order to not hiss in pain as Thor set him on the ground.

"Everything else that makes me myself went to the parallel Earth," Loki finished explaining.

Thor pulled Rogers out of the hole. He set the solider next to Loki, while Loki began to look for somewhere to sit. He wasn't sure how long he could remain upright.

"I had to…I had to be whole," Thor produced a flat piece of rubble and set it down for Loki, who gracefully sank onto it. "It was…it had to happen. It was, I guess you could say, meant to be."

"So, you're both of them now?" Rogers inquired.

"The good, the bad and the ugly," Loki said, turning his attention to the others. "You've closed the portal?"

"Yeah," Barton said, eyeing Loki. He still had an arrow pointed at him.

"Jessica?"

"She's been taken to the hospital," Romanov said. "She…she'll be fine."

Loki nodded, relief filling him. "You will want to find the purple leather handbag she brought with her. I'm sure it's around here somewhere."

Loki looked around at the mess that used to be a dwelling.

"Or maybe not," Loki mumbled. He turned back to Rogers, who was standing next to him, and raised his hands, pushing them together at the wrists. "I believe this is the part where you take me into custody."

Only Barton looked as if he was ready to do as Loki requested. The others all appeared confused.

"Why would we—"

"Are you serious?"

"Brother, why—"

"I am not your brother," Loki snapped before he could stop himself.

Thor looked hurt while Loki tried to keep his anger from spiraling out of control. It was a strange sensation— one part of him knew he'd always be Thor's brother, while another part was seriously in a rage at hearing that word fall from Thor's lips.

"Ah, there's the other one," Stark crowed. "There's Rock of Ages."

"How many nicknames do you have for me?" Loki asked.

Stark shrugged.

"We need to hand him over to Fury," Barton flatly said.

"He must go back to Asgard," Thor insisted.

Thor eyed Loki wearily.

"What? He needs to pay for what he's done!" Barton shouted. The arrow pointed at Loki came very close to being set loose.

"He is not well!"

"I'm sitting right here!" Loki shouted. He wound up hacking, as yelling made his chest hurt.

The Hulk didn't like arguing, so he smashed the last standing wall into a pulp.

"I never did like that wall," Stark muttered, looking a combination of amused and outraged.

"He is a prince of Asgard. If the All-Father wishes to punish him, he will be punished on Asgard," Thor commanded.

Barton did not like that in the least. He began to argue with Thor, which led to everyone else talking over one another. Romanov argued there were therapists Loki could see at SHIELD and remain on Earth. Stark started talking about Chinese food for some reason, while the Hulk was too busy smashing up the rubble to give a flying hoot what was happening to Loki. Rogers looked at a loss and kept opening his mouth only to close it quickly. Loki knew there was a part of him that wanted to see Loki punished for the havoc wreaked, yet another part that couldn't ignore the fact he'd spent the past few days working and fighting along the side of Loki.

He were likely as conflicted as Loki was on the topic of himself.

Loki sighed. "Whatever you decide, I'll just wait here."

He leaned back and would have fallen off the piece of rubble he had been seated upon if Rogers had not caught him.

* * *

_I'm not God / I can't change the stars / And I don't know if there's life on Mars / But I know you're hurt_

_-McFly, "Bubble Wrap" _

* * *

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I am sure."

"I'm serious, dude."

"I am not a dude."

Clint let out a sigh and stared through the glass at Loki. He sat calmly in the Hulk's cage, his wrists bound in some sort of magic stopping shackles.

"Fury wants you."

Loki snorted and leveled Clint a look that made his skin crawl.

It was hard to look at Loki knowing both Evil Loki and Good Loki were in there. But, Clint knew the good one was in there and that the evil one had been mind controlled to do much of what he'd done. At first Clint had wanted Loki punished soundly for what he'd done— the mind control, the damage to the Malibu area, the general chaos of the past week or so…but, there was a broken look about Loki. It appeared within those freaky green eyes when Loki thought no one was looking.

That look made Clint push his own feelings aside and put himself in Loki's shoes.

Whole Loki was broken, defeated and confused. Whole Loki wanted to be forgiven, wanted to prove to the world he wasn't evil, yet was too proud to ask for a chance to remain on Earth and work for it.

It was easy for Clint to work out. He'd been there before.

So, Clint had made a point to visit Loki and try to make sure he knew what he was doing in going back to Asgard.

"What if that mad titian or whatever he is gets you back under his control?" Clint asked. "Does another mind whammy?"

"Agent Barton," Loki started.

"Clint. You call me Clint," Clint insisted, making his eyes hard. "Evil Loki called me Agent Barton. If you're not evil, you'll call me Clint."

The green eyed god stared at Clint in wonder for a long beat, then bent his head in agreement.

"Clint, then," he said softly. He shifted, the chains rattling. "Your concern is touching, but you must not worry. As long as the specter is kept from me, I shall remain in control of my own mind. He cannot reach me without the specter."

Clint shifted on his feet.

"Okay. What if that dude shows up looking for what you and Thor think he's after? The glove thingy?"

Loki pushed his shoulders back and turned his gaze away from Clint. "Asgard will not fall."

Clint sighed.

It was always the answer when Loki was that particular question. Thor had assured Fury the Glove of Doom was well protected and now that Loki was whole and in control of himself, there was no worry.

Granted, Fury worried for a living.

Fury was also furious that Thor was dragging Loki back to Asgard to stand trial.

Actually, everyone was upset about that. Even Clint. A little bit— only because Thor didn't seem to understand insanity plea. It seemed illnesses of the mind weren't very common on Asgard, thus the legal system failed to recognize that sometimes people did things when they weren't in their right minds.

"Aw, come one! He just had a bad day!" Stark had shouted, pounding his hands on the conference table. "Everyone does once in awhile! And everything here wasn't his fault!"

"That bad day ended with a town on Midgard in ruins, the death of a foreign king, and another entire world at the brink of extension," Thor had said steadily, looking as if he was having trouble controlling his temper. "My brother is whole now— both the good and bad reside within. He must stand trial for what he did before he fell from the Rainbow Bridge."

That had silenced everyone for only minutes before they began to argue again.

"He wasn't right in the head before he fell," Banner had reminded the room. "Are you taking into account his state of mind before he was torn apart and taken control of?"

The answer was no, but Thor wasn't going to budge.

"Clint," Loki softly asked, bringing Clint out of his thoughts and back to the present.

"Yeah?"

"Will you look after Jessica for me?"

The green eyes pleaded with him, so Clint nodded, though he was a bit confused.

"Wouldn't Banner or Rogers do that for you?"

"She won't know them. She will know you," Loki explained simply.

Clint frowned. "I don't remember anything from during my mind whammie."

"Hers will be similar to mine. I remember everything I did whilst under it," Loki said, turning away from Clint.

Clint frowned. "So, uh…Jessica's mind control was more like whatever was on Evil Loki?"

The Loki before Clint nodded, turning his attention back to Clint. The green eyes locked on him.

"She will remember you. You will be the only familiar face— well, the only familiar person she will personally know when she awakes," Loki explained, shifting again and making the shackles clink together. "She knows all of you, but only you personally."

Clint nodded. "Okay."

"How is Mr Stark?" Loki asked, changing the subject swiftly.

Jessica was not a topic Loki wanted to dwell upon. Clint sighed and thought about how he ought to answer the question. Stark, while a stanch supporter of keeping Loki on Earth and making sure he stayed reformed and "good," hadn't been to visit the locked up god. Clint was sure everyone else had visited Loki at least once since he'd been locked up.

"He's repairing his house. He found that bag you mentioned. You did something to it right?"

"I did."

"Stark was having kittens," Clint said, shaking his head. "Said it was right out of _Harry Potter_."

"That was where Jessica got the idea," Loki replied, a small wistful smile on his lips.

"I think he's here. To see you off. He didn't want you to go. None of us do."

Loki leveled Clint a look and Clint swallowed thickly but held his ground. The man sitting in the cage before Clint at this moment hadn't shown one hint of wanting to rule the world, stomp on everyone's freedom, or kill anyone other than maybe Thor. Any mention of Thor, Odin, whoever the hell Sif and the Warriors Three were tended to make Loki go a bit mental.

Clint still needed more words for crazy.

"I am serious. I didn't know the good half, but…I mean, I was pretty much unharmed. Yeah, I'm pissed you took away my freewill, but other than blindly shooting at other SHEILD agents, I didn't do anything all that evil."

Clint had been debriefed about everything he'd done to SHIELD's knowledge. And he had honestly thought it'd be a lot worse than it was.

Loki sighed as Thor thundered up the stairs to the cage.

"Brother, it's time."

Loki's mouth tightened at Thor's use of the term _brother_ (like it always did), but he quickly covered it, nodding instead of shouting and slowly stood up, smoothing the front of his crazy outfit. He was still dressed in the evil one's clothing— which threw everyone off. The only surefire way to tell this Loki wasn't The Ant Squishing One was in the eyes. The green eyes told the whole story. In Control of His Mind and Whole Loki wasn't driven by madness, revenge or rage. He was sad, somewhat angry, and lost. He'd been twisted and used—he was tired as hell.

Clint was sure Loki was anxious to get to Asgard and take a long nap. (Not that was what was likely on the itinerary.)

Clint stood aside as Thor opened the cage and led the shackled Loki out. Loki eyed his brother, seemingly waiting for something. Thor grabbed Loki by the arm and guided him up the stairs.

Loki was still in rough shape thanks to the handcuffs trapping his magic he'd been sporting since Thor had made them appear out of thin air back at Stark's former house. The guy needed magic to heal and had no access to it, so he had to heal the old fashion way. Thus, he moved stiffly (but still regally) and had several still healing cuts on his face— reminders of his meeting with the floor by way of a good old Hulk Smashing.

Thor led the way out of the room the cage was within and to the Quinjet that would fly everyone to New Mexico, where Thor and Loki would use the Tesseract to travel on back home.

Fury might be pissed Thor was running off with the blue cube, but Clint was happy to see that damn thing leave. He hated that cube.

Clint remained silent throughout the entire hour long plane ride to the middle of nowhere New Mexico. Rogers and Loki carried on a quiet conversation (their heads got steadily closer as time wore on till they were almost touching by the time the plane began to land). Banner kept staring at Loki with a frown while talking science with Stark (who was hell bent of getting Banner to move into Stark Tower and have a lab romance with him). Natasha flew the plane while Coulson sat next to her, occasionally frowning when he looked over his shoulder at Loki and Rogers. Thor fiddled with his hammer.

For the entire flight.

"Are you sure about this?" Rogers asked louder than he'd previously been speaking to Loki. "Couldn't you wait till Jessica wakes up?"

Loki seemed to realize how close he and Rogers were and angled his body away. Thor dropped his hammer, making a loud clanging noise that echoed around the plane.

"It is time, Steven," Loki softly said, looking away from Rogers as Natasha turned the engines off.

Loki's face closed off. Rogers sighed and clapped a hand on the god's shoulder and stood up. It was clearly a conversation they'd had many times and Rogers would never win.

"Brother, come," Thor ordered, hooking his hammer to his belt and waiting for his brother to stand.

Loki pressed his lips together and stood. Thor took him by the shoulder and steered him towards the opening hatch. Clint stood next to Rogers.

"I think he ought to wait for her to wake up, too," Clint said softly. "But, Thor wants to go and half of him doesn't understand why he even likes her."

Rogers frowned. "I think both Lokis liked her. Why else would RG give her magic?"

Not bothering to wait for an answer, Rogers strode out of the plane.

"Well, let's go say goodbye to our new friends," Stark said, ambling up from behind.

The rest of the group filed out and gathered around Thor and Loki, who were seriously standing in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't anything for as far as the eye could see other than their jet.

Clint hoped the jet didn't break before they got back to civilization. Mostly because the sun was blasting and would likely kill everyone before they got help. Everyone (save the two gods) was sporting sunglasses and light clothing (except the gods who were both in their insane leather and metal armor).

"Well, bye," Clint said when no one else said anything.

"Yeah, so long and thanks for all the fish," Stark quipped.

Both Thor and Loki gave Stark puzzled looks.

"I do not remember any fish," Thor said, looking to Loki to explain.

Loki shrugged.

"When will you be back?" Rogers asked.

"Hemidall sees all. If you need help, I will come," Thor assured.

"I will come if I am able. Remind Jessica…about Hemidall," Loki said, stiffly standing next to his brother.

Clint made a mental note to read up on this Hemidall dude.

"Let's get this over with," Loki suddenly snapped.

Everyone stared at Loki. He looked tense and unsure, angry and mad.

"Your Evil Loki is showing," Clint taunted.

Loki quickly schooled his features.

"Will you be able to let us know what happened? Back on Asgard?" Banner asked, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his pants.

"You will know," Loki assured, meeting Banner's eyes. Banner looked confused, but nodded.

"We'll look after Jessica," Rogers said. "All of us."

"Thank you," Loki quietly said, head lowering a moment before he locked eyes with Clint.

Clint took a deep breath and nodded. Guilt shone in those blasted green eyes and Clint felt extremely sorry for Loki, but more so for the woman lying in a strange hospital on a strange world that was not her own.

The only person she knew was about to go off to another planet with no knowledge if he'd be able to come back.

At least Stark had found her stupid purse that contained her entire life. That was a good thing.

"Let us go," Thor said, holding up the container with the stupid, glowing, crazy-inducing cube.

Loki nodded and took the handle of the contraption Thor offered. Thor took a deep breath and bade the group farewell yet again before twisting the container and activating the Tesseract.

And in a flash of blue light that shot into the sky, the two gods were gone.

"Well, that was fun," Stark said, rubbing his hands together. "Who is up for some Texmex? They sell that here, right? Or should we just find some place that has green chili salsa? Or guacamole? I could go for that."

Stark turned and threw an arm around Banner, steering the man towards the Quinjet.

"So, what do ya say? Food, dancing and moving into Stark Tower?"

Banner sighed deeply.

"What is Texmex?" Rogers asked, looking confused.

"A type of food cuisine," Natasha said. "Stark! STARK! You cannot fly the plane!"

Natasha ran towards the plane where Stark and Banner had vanished. Rogers fell into step with Clint, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants.

"So, are you going to visit Jessica as soon as we're back on the Hellicarrier?"

Clint nodded. "Yeah. Fury wants to move her to a more secure location. Likely headquarters in New York. You live in New York, right?"

Rogers nodded. "Yeah. I know Loki asked you to look after her because you actually spent the most time with her, but I'll help. I want to help."

Clint eyed the towering blond next to him.

"Sure. The more the merrier," Clint said, looking over his shoulder at the empty desert behind him briefly before looking back at Rogers. "Now, what's going on with you and Lokes?"

Clint loved the look of utter confusion he got out of Rogers.

* * *

_Your ways, my ways / Never, always / The future, the past / The first, the last / Heartbreak, I'm not holding your hand any more_

_-Glasvegas, "Euphoria, Take My Hand" _

* * *

Witton didn't wake up for almost two weeks after Loki and Thor had gone back to Asgard. Fury moved her into the same location they'd stored Rogers when he was recovering from his long sleep in the ice. However, unlike Rogers, they did not try to pull a fast one on her and make her think she was waking up in her own world.

Clint was seated by her side as her green eyes fluttered open and she groaned. She turned her head slowly towards him and blinked several times.

"Morning," he greeted easily, closing the magazine he had not actually been reading. "The nurse told me you woke up finally. She said you might not be able to talk yet or something…medical jargon is lost on me."

She blinked and twitched her nose.

"Now you look like a rabbit," Clint offered. "Want anything?"

"Water," she croaked faintly.

Clint got her a glass of water and helped her sit up to drink it.

"I feel like I was hit by a car," she grumbled.

"Well, you weren't hit by a car, but you were in a car accident. You wrapped yourself around a light pole," Clint said. "The nurses filled you in, right?"

"No. I remember that, though," she admitted, proving Loki right about the whole mind control thing. "I thought I wouldn't remember. Do you remember?"

"No, uh, I don't. I've been filled in, though. Loki said yours was a different type of mind control, though he didn't know why."

"Where is Loki?"

Clint took a deep breath, bracing himself. He kind of hated Loki for leaving him with this duty: telling Witton her only friend was off world.

"Asgard."

She frowned. "Both of them?"

"They merged."

Clint relayed the entire saga to her. By the time he was done she looked like someone had shot her puppy.

"So, I'm alone?" she squeaked. Her breaths were too quick and her pulse was rocketing out of control on her neck.

"I'm here. Rogers seems to like you. Mostly because I think he likes Loki, if you get my drift."

Clint wiggled his eyebrows. In the past two weeks Clint had spent a lot of time with Steve Rogers and had found him completely mind baffling in that Rogers was clearly into a guy and failed to realize it. Though, he was a relic from the past when that kind of thing was frowned on, so maybe it was totally understandable he failed to realize he was a little…fixated on Loki. Well, good Loki. No one seemed to like Evil Loki except Thor.

Jessica stared at Clint, blinking and then burst out laughing for a moment till she started wheezing.

"Laughing not good," she muttered, trying to get her breathing under control. She took a few rather deep, calming breaths before shaking her head again. "Oh, god. I can't believe it. Steve likes Lo?"

"I'm pretty sure Loki liked him," Clint said. "Before he went off to Neverland with Thor, Loki made us all promise to look after you. Fury is anxious to figure out how you have magic."

"I don't have magic."

"Uh, yeah, you still do," Clint told her, shifting in his seat till he was resting his elbows on his knees. "Whatever Evil Loki did to you left you with magic."

She looked troubled, her breathing quickening. She raised her hand and stared at it.

"Do you feel it? Thor said it wasn't a lot of magic. He said you felt like his hammer," Clint reported. "Loki didn't say anything. Tragically."

She looked at him with wild eyes. Clint sat back and ran a hand through his hair, feeling he was out of his depth. She was clearly having a mild panic attack.

"I know, he's the magic expert. But he was wearing these mean bracelets that cut him off from magic, so he couldn't tell. He also had no idea what you having magic might mean as he was kinda hung up on the fact you can't _give_ magic to people," Clint explained. "Feel anything? Other than panic?"

She shook her head, lowering her hand to the bed. She took a few more breaths before asking, "Where's that big red button that brings morphine?"

Clint handed her the call button. She hit it. Multiple times.

"So, now what?"

"No clue. I guess you can join SHEILD. Or you can go hang out with Stark and he can study you."

"What?"

Her eyes were wild again.

"He's anxious to learn about magic and the only magical being we know of blasted off the planet," Clint reminded her. "Fury will likely want to keep you on a leash— like Rogers. Though, after you get squared away, I think Rogers wants to go explore the world, seeing he's been asleep for seventy years."

The girl nodded, clenching her hands in the bedsheets.

The nurse appeared and drugged her up. Clint watched as she calmed down and became rather dopey. Within fifteen minutes she was pretty much useless. She fell back asleep and Clint decided he was going to find food.

After he ate, Clint poked his head into the room to find Rogers had shown up. The man was sitting by the window reading what looked like the thickest _Harry Potter_ novel of the series. Clint slipped back into the room.

"You just missed her. She's high on drugs now," Clint reported, sitting back down in the chair he'd been in earlier.

Rogers looked up and nodded. "The nurse told me. I wrestled the purse off Tony."

Stark had found the bag fascinating. He'd been devoting most of his time to trying to apply science to the thing. (It wasn't going well for him.)

Rogers pulled the bag out from beside him and set it on the table next to the sleeping women's head.

"Did you put the stuff back in it?" (Stark had unloaded it. And Jessica's (and Good Loki's) Entire life took up almost the entire floor of Stark's lab.

She had a lot of crap in that tiny bag.

Rogers nodded. "Everything's in there except that white thing. The, uh, cell phone? Pod player? I don't remember what it was exactly, but Tony took that and I think he broke it. It kind of made him mad for some reason."

Clint shrugged, not having any idea what Rogers was taking about.

The two men fell into their usual compatible silence till Witton woke up again. She spotted Rogers right away and blinked several times before gasping loudly.

"Dude, you're better looking in person than on TV!" she breathed as she stared at him with wide eyes. "No wonder Lo likes you!"

Rogers went brick red, while Clint let out a bark of laughter.

* * *

_Yeah, freedom is mine / And I know how I feel / It's a new dawn, it's a new day / It's a new life for me_

_-Nina Simone, "Feeling Good" _

* * *

Witton had panic attacks, as she had some sort of anxiety disorder. She'd had it before she'd traveled to their world and knew what pills she wanted to deal with it. After she started having access to those, her panic attacks lessened.

Clint also figured it helped that Stark, Rogers, Banner and himself were almost always with her and kept her in good spirits by not allowing her to dwell on the fact Loki had left her alone in a strange new world. Not that it was all that strange. It looked almost exactly like her old world and she knew things about them they hadn't told each other.

Out of all four of them, though, she knew Stark best oddly— the one person who did not honestly feel compelled to look after nor had been asked by Loki to look after her. While Stark never seemed bothered (he basked in her attention) when no one was looking, he often looked mystified why she liked him best out of all of them.

It was mystifying. Stark wasn't all that likable. He was more of an acquired taste.

Witton, though, had liked Stark from the get-go and was on a mission to get him into therapy.

"You need to talk about your feelings before they eat you alive," Witton had said. "I love therapy! Everyone should do therapy!"

"You need to do magic," Stark had replied.

Stark didn't talk about his feeling and Witton didn't do any magic.

After two full weeks in SHEILD medical, the doctors deemed Witton fit to leave. Stark swept her off to Stark Tower. Clint wasn't sure if he'd ask her to move in to the tower or simply assumed that was where she was going.

She went without a fuss and was shortly followed by Banner (who claimed he didn't trust Tony with his what Stark thought was his shiny new toy and not another human being).

It'd been about four months since Witton (who kept telling Clint to call her Jess, but he kept calling her Witton for some reason) moved into Stark Tower. Things had calmed down for the most part and she steadily got better. She could even walk again with the aid of a cane and wasn't popping those happy pills as often.

"He's going to go mental," Witton announced while she and Clint were in the penthouse living room on a wonderful fall afternoon.

Witton had said this was the room where Loki had gotten Hulk Smashed in the movie and that always amused Clint. The Penthouse had wound up being the communal living area— oddly enough. Clint was sure Stark had built an actual general living area, but they all hung out in Stark's living room.

"What do you mean?" Clint asked, flipping channels while Witton hobbled around the room in circles behind him.

"Tony has PTSD," Jessica reported. "In _Iron Man 3_ he kind of deals with it, but there is a lot of exploding involved. At Christmas."

"Uh, okay," Clint said, realizing why her tone was so tight today. "So, you saying we ought to watch him carefully?"

"Yes. Also, he might really like one of my happy pills," she insisted, making a face she turned to head back towards the window. "He has anxiety attacks. I'm familiar with them. I haven't really noticed him having trouble while he's been here, but he's planning on going to California to oversee construction on his house till Christmas."

"You know, that movie might not happen due to how Loki and you changed things up," Clint reminded her, looking up as she fell over sideways on the couch next to him, a look of pain on her face.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Might have over did the whole walking thing today," she admitted. "The reason for a major plot point in _Iron Man 3_ was something that happened in 1999. Before Lo and myself. That's why I'm still worried. Tony still did the thing that set the movie in motion. And I can't remember the bad guy's name."

"Okay. So, you wanna go to California with him? Is that what you're trying to tell me?"

Witton sighed. "I don't know."

She pouted for a minute.

"I'm never driving again," she muttered, collapsing sideways and ramming her hard head into Clint's shoulder.

"Good thing you live in New York, then," Clint quipped, looking down at her.

Jessica tossed him a look and rolled her eyes as Stark burst out of the elevator.

"Good morning my lovelies!" he boomed at the top of the stairs.

"It's one in the afternoon, Stark," Clint reminded the man, watching him bounce down the few stairs and into the living room.

"Like I said, morning," Stark said, flopping down in an arm chair. He noticed the cane on the floor. "So, how's the work to walk again without falling going, Smurfette?"

Jessica had streaked her hair with a bright blue color shortly after moving into the tower. She had made Rogers help her and he had blue hands for a few days, much to the amusement of Stark.

"Fine. I'll be running in the Iron Man triathlon tomorrow," she joked dryly. "So, ask already. You might like the answer today."

Clint's eyes popped out of his head.

Stark righted himself in the chair and rubbed his hands together. An excited expression appeared on his face. "So, when do we start with the magic?"

"What do you say to right now?"

Stark looked like Christmas was early.

"I say, let the games begin."

* * *

_You've got to be the best / You've got to change the world / And use this chance to be heard / Your time is now_

_-Muse, "Butterflies and Hurricanes" _

* * *

_A/N: This will not be the VERY end of this series, just the end of this story. I have no clue what I'm doing for the next one other than a scene where Jess grabs Clint and shouts, "I TOLD YOU SO!" while pointing at the TV while the news shows them Tony and his Iron Man suits blowing up the…thing they were on during the FINAL battle of the movie. Other than that I got nada. (Those of you who read the Harry Potter stories will be thrilled to know that now that this is out of my head, I can focus on Book Four!) (People who read TSC, sorry. Still hitting my head up against the wall on that one…) _

_Anyhoo, thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting and following! _


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